5-1405msg3.txt

贝叶斯学习算法源码

Subject: re : comparative linguistics

) from : amr @ are . c . wayne . edu ) ) it seem ) to me that a lot of the people [ . . . ] ) also seem to hold another curious position , namely , that you ) cannot show the relatedness of a group of language by exhibit ) systematic correspondence of sound in the vocabulary of say ) language but only by exhibit systematically relate morphological ) paradigm . [ . . . ] ) ) alexis manaster ramer good lord ! i have be watch this thread with a somewhat jaundice eye , think " i ' m not go to get into this " , but this . . . ) from my experience with language of vanuatu , morphological paradigm be the * least * stable feature , follow by phonology , then , most stable , lexical . ye , i remember have be teach that , i mean , about morphology be most reliable , actually , the * only * reliable criterion . i be also teach a lot of other stuff which experience show me to be false . think of it , why should this reliance on morphology have come about ? 1 . a hangover from the elaboration of the comparative method on indo - european , or , i should rather say , on the discovery of sanskrit . it may so happen that member of that language family have be particularly retentive morphologically . whence generalization to all language . the fallacy of extrapolate . all irish barmaid be redhead . 2 . it be easy to measure and count lexical similarity . claim base on such measurement be therefore more easily open to scrutiny , and to refutation . ( an aside : there 's be some discussion on whether linguistics be a science , in the mean of karl popper . well , here 's one domain where it could be ) . on the other hand , how do you measure morphological similarity ? and worse , systematic similarity of morphological paradigm ? this , then , be hardly open to refutation . speak of the devil , i receive a letter yesterday from merritt ruhlen " i would appreciate it if you could send me a copy of your forthcome article in anthropo concern the probability of chance resemblance " . which i do , comment , mean it as a sort of salve - - but perhap it will be feel as salt : " in general i take a dim view of comparative linguistics . it various methodology be mostly ad hoc and without a sound basis , often relie on a complete misunderstand of the process at work [ here a few example ] . and the same claim and method crop up perennially . " which be also my thought and feeling today . ( * sigh * ) j . guy @ trl . oz . au