5-1286msg3.txt

运用贝叶斯网编的一个识别垃圾邮件的程序

Subject: re : 5 . 1237 sum : basic word order ( and remark on typology )

fritz newmeyer raise some important issue about typological research as instantiate in nichol ' work and elsewhere , which call for some comment . first , the notion of language type be an idealization : this be often make clear in typology course , where non-existent artificial language be consider as logically possible or impossible language type , if not alway in the publish literature ( though the point be clearly make in comrie 's textbook , for example , by the discussion of morphological typology ) . similarly , fritz be quite right to point out that the assumption of no areal or genetic bias , to the extent that it be make at all , be a counterfactual one . what i would ask be whether such idealization differ in kind from those , many of them counterfactual , which underlie generative grammar . the justification be similar in both case : methodologically , one cannot deal with all the relevant variable all the time , and some of the concept use be logically independent of the extrinsic variable , e . g . one can investigate consistency with propose implicational universal regardless of the statistical bias in one 's sample . the term ` shaky typological pigeon-hole ' be particularly inapt as apply to nichol ' distinction between head-mark and dependent - mark language , which be quite explicitly a matter of degree ( see her 1986 paper where the degree of hm v . dm be quantifify in term of the number of pattern instantiate each type ) . if nichol refer to a ` head-mark language ' this be shorthand for a quantifiable tendency , just as we may describe italian as a ` pro-drop language ' without imply that there be a binary distinction here ( in fact there be degree of pro-drop , e . g . some language allow null expletive but not null referential subject , etc ) . another point which i think all typologist would accept be that language which do n't appear to match an establish type be typological datum - for example , colloquial french as discuss recently on linguist be a language which may reasonably be describe as have no basic word order ( i believe that nichol classify it as vso in one of her table , but that be again shorthand for a more complex situation ) . this be an explanandum for which nichol ' 1986 paper offer an explanation : head-mark facilitate word order freedom , and colloquial french instantiate clausal head-mark in nichol ' sense . to sum up : pace widespread opinion , typologist ' goal be not pigeon-hole ( " taxonomy " be also widely use in this context ! ) but the investigation and explanation of pattern of variation . steve matthew