Computational phylogenetics and the classification of South American languages

In recent years, South Americanist linguists have embraced computational phylogenetic methods to resolve the numerous outstanding questions about the genealogi- cal relationships among the languages of the continent. We provide a critical review of the methods and language classification results that have accumulated thus far, emphasizing the superiority of character-based methods over distance-based ones and the importance of develop- ing adequate comparative datasets for producing well- resolved classifications

Creating Open Source Geodemographic Classifications for Higher Education Applications

This paper explores the use of geodemographic classifications to investigate the social, economic and spatial dimensions of participation in higher education. Education is a public service that confers very significant and tangible benefits upon receiving individuals: as such, we argue that understanding the geodemography of educational opportunity requires an application-specific classification, that exploits under-used educational data sources. We develop a classification for the UK higher education sector, and apply it to the Gospel Oak area of London. We discuss the wider merits of sector specific applications of geodemographics, with particular reference to issues of public service provision

Ethnicity and degree attainment

In this paper, we investigate the low degree attainment of ethnic minority students in higher education in England. Using a partial proportional odds model and data from the Higher Education Statistics Agency for qualifiers who started their course of study in 2002/03, we find that even after controlling for the majority of factors which we would expect to have an impact on attainment, being from a minority ethnic community is still statistically significant in explaining final attainment, although the gap has been significantly reduced

Reflections on Hindi and history

textIn this paper, I consider historical periods, linguistic categories, and social theories in relation to Hindi in order to trace out the character and trajectory of the language. From sixteenth-century courtly contexts, to the adoption of the Devanagari script in the twentieth century by nationalists, Hindi has a polyvalent and yet specific history. I discuss these contexts in which social contact led to linguistic change and in which Hindi acquired many of the lexical, syntactical, and phonological characteristics by which it is recognized today. I conclude with a section that considers the motif of language and power, and I suggest that the production of knowledge and power in language use, offers both the means of distinction and expression or, in another sense, of hierarchy and communitas. A thread that runs throughout the paper is attention to the contexts in which language use enables elaboration and in which elaboration is eschewed in order to attain social unity. Pursuing a descriptive historical-linguistic project, I neither affirm nor deny the politics of such language use, but rather I indicate the ways in which actors and agents use Hindi to help articulate their agency.Asian Studie

The cultural, ethnic and linguistic classification of populations and neighbourhoods using personal names

There are growing needs to understand the nature and detailed composition of ethnicgroups in today?s increasingly multicultural societies. Ethnicity classifications areoften hotly contested, but still greater problems arise from the quality and availabilityof classifications, with knock on consequences for our ability meaningfully tosubdivide populations. Name analysis and classification has been proposed as oneefficient method of achieving such subdivisions in the absence of ethnicity data, andmay be especially pertinent to public health and demographic applications. However,previous approaches to name analysis have been designed to identify one or a smallnumber of ethnic minorities, and not complete populations.This working paper presents a new methodology to classify the UK population andneighbourhoods into groups of common origin using surnames and forenames. Itproposes a new ontology of ethnicity that combines some of its multidimensionalfacets; language, religion, geographical region, and culture. It uses data collected atvery fine temporal and spatial scales, and made available, subject to safeguards, at thelevel of the individual. Such individuals are classified into 185 independentlyassigned categories of Cultural Ethnic and Linguistic (CEL) groups, based on theprobable origins of names. We include a justification for the need of classifyingethnicity, a proposed CEL taxonomy, a description of how the CEL classification wasbuilt and applied, a preliminary external validation, and some examples of current andpotential applications

Ethnicity and degree attainment

In this paper, we investigate the low degree attainment of ethnic minority students in higher education in England. Using a partial proportional odds model and data from the Higher Education Statistics Agency for qualifiers who started their course of study in 2002/03, we find that even after controlling for the majority of factors which we would expect to have an impact on attainment, being from a minority ethnic community is still statistically significant in explaining final attainment, although the gap has been significantly reduced.Ethnicity; Higher Education; Attainment

Nationalism Studies Applied to a Register of Mexican Colonial Translations. Interim Report

To study translation as a representation of the Mexican nation on the basis of a catalogue of translations spanning three centuries, I propose a classification method inspired by some concepts of nationalism studies. I will try to contribute an analysis of the possible ways of handling such a catalogue while stressing the importance of classifications. I will also highlight the interest of establishing a dialogue between translation studies and other disciplines, such as nationalism studies.Pour étudier la traduction comme représentation de la nation mexicaine à partir d’un catalogue de traductions couvrant trois siècles, je propose une méthode de classification inspirée des concepts employés par les études sur le nationalisme. La contribution de cet article consiste, d’une part, à analyser les possibilités de maniement d’un tel catalogue pour conclure sur l’importance des classifications et, d’autre part, à justifier l’intérêt de faire dialoguer la traductologie avec d’autres disciplines, notamment les études sur le nationalisme