| 1. |
- Dunn, Michael, et al.
(author)
-
Assessing the lexical evidence for a Central Solomons Papuan family using the Oswalt Monte Carlo Test
- 2012
-
In: Diachronica. - : John Benjamins Publishing Company. - 0176-4225 .- 1569-9714. ; 29:1, s. 1-27
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In the absence of comparative method reconstruction, high rate of lexical cognate candidates is often used as evidence for relationships between languages. This paper uses the Oswalt Monte Carlo Shift test (a variant of Oswalt 1970) to explore the statistical basis of the claim that the four Papuan languages of the Solomon Islands have greater than chance levels of lexical similarity. The results of this test initially appear to show that the lexical similarities between the Central Solomons Papuan languages are statistically significant, but the effect disappears when known Oceanic loanwords are removed. The Oswalt Monte Carlo test is a useful technique to test a claim of greater than chance similarity between any two word lists — with the proviso that undetected loanwords strongly increase the chance of spurious identification.
|
|
| 2. |
|
|
| 3. |
- Dunn, Michael, et al.
(author)
-
Structural phylogeny in historical linguistics : methodological explorations applied in Island Melanesia
- 2008
-
In: Language. - : Linguistic Society of America. - 0097-8507 .- 1535-0665. ; 84:4, s. 710-759
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Using various methods derived from evolutionary biology, including maximum parsimony and Bayesian phylogenetic analysis, we tackle the question of the relationships among a group of Papuan isolate languages that have hitherto resisted accepted attempts at demonstration of interrelatedness. Instead of using existing vocabulary-based methods, which cannot be applied to these languages due to the paucity of shared lexemes, we created a database of STRUCTURAL FEATURES — abstract phonological and grammatical features apart from their form. The methods are first tested on the closely related Oceanic languages spoken in the same region as the Papuan languages in question. We find that using biological methods on structural features can recapitulate the results of the comparative method tree for the Oceanic languages, thus showing that structural features can be a valid way of extracting linguistic history. Application of the same methods to the otherwise unrelatable Papuan languages is therefore likely to be similarly valid. Because languages that have been in contact for protracted periods may also converge, we outline additional methods for distinguishing convergence from inherited relatedness.
|
|
| 4. |
|
|
| 5. |
- Hunley, Keith, et al.
(author)
-
Genetic and Linguistic Coevolution in Northern Island Melanesia
- 2008
-
In: PLOS Genetics. - : Public Library of Science (PLoS). - 1553-7390 .- 1553-7404. ; 4:10
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Recent studies have detailed a remarkable degree of genetic and linguistic diversity in Northern Island Melanesia. Here we utilize that diversity to examine two models of genetic and linguistic coevolution. The first model predicts that genetic and linguistic correspondences formed following population splits and isolation at the time of early range expansions into the region. The second is analogous to the genetic model of isolation by distance, and it predicts that genetic and linguistic correspondences formed through continuing genetic and linguistic exchange between neighboring populations. We tested the predictions of the two models by comparing observed and simulated patterns of genetic variation, genetic and linguistic trees, and matrices of genetic, linguistic, and geographic distances. The data consist of 751 autosomal microsatellites and 108 structural linguistic features collected from 33 Northern Island Melanesian populations. The results of the tests indicate that linguistic and genetic exchange have erased any evidence of a splitting and isolation process that might have occurred early in the settlement history of the region. The correlation patterns are also inconsistent with the predictions of the isolation by distance coevolutionary process in the larger Northern Island Melanesian region, but there is strong evidence for the process in the rugged interior of the largest island in the region (New Britain). There we found some of the strongest recorded correlations between genetic, linguistic, and geographic distances. We also found that, throughout the region, linguistic features have generally been less likely to diffuse across population boundaries than genes. The results from our study, based on exceptionally fine-grained data, show that local genetic and linguistic exchange are likely to obscure evidence of the early history of a region, and that language barriers do not particularly hinder genetic exchange. In contrast, global patterns may emphasize more ancient demographic events, including population splits associated with the early colonization of major world regions.
|
|
| 6. |
|
|
| 7. |
- Hunley, Keith, et al.
(author)
-
Inferring Prehistory from Genetic, Linguistic, and Geographic Variation
- 2007
-
In: Population Genetics, Linguistics, and Culture History in the Southwest Pacific. - : Oxford University Press. ; , s. 141-155
-
Book chapter (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This chapter investigates the fit of genetic, phenotypic, and linguistic data to two well-known models of population history. The first of these models, termed the population fissions model, emphasizes population splitting, isolation, and independent evolution. It predicts that genetic and linguistic data will be perfectly tree-like. The second model, termed isolation by distance, emphasizes genetic exchange among geographically proximate populations. It predicts a monotonic decline in genetic similarity with increasing geographic distance. While these models are overly simplistic, deviations from them were expected to provide important insights into the population history of northern Island Melanesia. The chapter finds scant support for either model because the prehistory of the region has been so complex. Nonetheless, the genetic and linguistic data are consistent with an early radiation of proto-Papuan speakers into the region followed by a much later migration of Austronesian speaking peoples. While these groups subsequently experienced substantial genetic and cultural exchange, this exchange has been insufficient to erase this history of separate migrations.
|
|
| 8. |
- Kulick, Don, et al.
(author)
-
A Grammar and Dictionary of Tayap : The Life and Death of a Papuan Language
- 2019
-
Book (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Tayap is a small, previously undocumented Papuan language, spoken in a singlevillage called Gapun, in the lower Sepik River region of Papua New Guinea. Thelanguage is an isolate, unrelated to any other in the area. Furthermore, Tayap isdying. Fewer than fifty speakers actively command it today.Based on linguistic anthropological work conducted over the course of thirtyyears, this book describes the grammar of the language, detailing its phonology,morphology and syntax. It devotes particular attention to verbs, which are themost elaborated area of the grammar, and which are complex, fusional andmassively suppletive.The book also provides a full Tayap-English-Tok Pisindictionary.A particularly innovative contribution is the detailed discussions of howTayap’'s grammar is dissolving in the language of young speakers. The bookexemplifies how the complex structures in fluent speakers’ Tayap are reduced orreanalyzed by younger speakers.This grammar and dictionary should therefore be a valuable resource for anyoneinterested in the mechanics of how languages disappear. The fact that it is thesole documentation of this unique Papuan language should also make it ofinterest to areal specialists and language typologists.
|
|
| 9. |
- Lindström, Eva, et al.
(author)
-
The Languages of Island Melanesia
- 2007
-
In: Genes, Language, and Culture History in the Southwest Pacific. - New York : Oxford University Press. - 9780195300307 ; , s. 118-140
-
Book chapter (other academic/artistic)
|
|
| 10. |
- Terrill, Angela, et al.
(author)
-
Orientation as a strategy of spatial reference
- 2008
-
In: Studies in Language. - : John Benjamins Publishing Company. - 0378-4177 .- 1569-9978. ; 32:1, s. 93-136
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This paper explores a strategy of spatial expression which utilizes orientation, a way of describing the spatial relationship of entities by means of reference to their facets. We present detailed data and analysis from two languages, Jahai (Mon-Khmer, Malay Peninsula) and Lavukaleve (Papuan isolate, Solomon Islands), and supporting data from five more languages, to show that the orientation strategy is a major organizing principle in these languages. This strategy has not previously been recognized in the literature as a unitary phenomenon, and the languages which employ it present particular challenges to existing typologies of spatial frames of reference.
|
|
