Towards unsupervised extraction of linguistic typological features from language descriptions

In this paper, we describe our first attempt at building an NLP pipeline that extracts typological features from OCR’ed linguistic descriptions

Population Size and Rates of Language Change

Previous empirical studies of population size and language change have produced equivocal results. We therefore address the question with a new set of lexical data from nearly one-half of the world’s languages. We first show that relative population sizes of modern languages can be extrapolated to ancestral languages, albeit with diminishing accuracy, up to several thousand years into the past. We then test for an effect of population against the null hypothesis that the ultrametric inequality is satisfied by lexical distance among triples of related languages. The test shows mainly negligible effects of population, the exception being an apparently faster rate of change in the larger of two closely related variants. A possible explanation for the exception may be the influence on emerging standard (or cross-regional) variants from speakers who shift from different dialects to the standard. Our results strongly indicate that the sizes of speaker populations do not in and of themselves determine rates of language change. Comparison of this empirical finding with previously published computer simulations suggests that the most plausible model for language change is one in which changes propagate on a local level in a type of network in which the individuals have different degrees of connectivity

Longitud vocálica y globalización en la escritura jeroglífica náhuatl

Longitud vocálica y glotalización son rasgos fonológicos que presentan algunas lenguas del mundo. Estos importantes rasgos fueron tratados de forma muy distinta en los diferentes sistemas de escritura que las registraron, en unas ocasiones no representándose (Lineal B y latina romana), en otras adoptando diferentes estrategias, desde la introducción de signos distintos especializados (escritura griega) al desarrollo de convenciones escriturarias (acadio y persa cuneiforme y maya). Este trabajo estudia la representación de la longitud vocálica y la glotalización en la escritura jeroglífica náhuatl. Analizando la estructura del signario fonético, el comportamiento de los fonogramas en la complementación fonética y el uso de los logogramas en rebus, debemos concluir que la longitud vocálica no se representó en la escritura jeroglífica náhuatl ni mediante la utilización de fonogramas especializados ni mediante convenciones de composición, considerando la posibilidad, sin embargo, del uso de la inserción vocálica (-CV1-V1) como convención escrituraria para la representación de glotales (V’).Vowel length and glottalization are phonological features exhibited by several languages of the world. These important features were treated in very different ways by different writing systems. Sometimes they were not represented at all (Linear B and the Roman alphabet); sometimes they were represented through the introduction of specialized signs (the Greek alphabet) or through the development of special scribal conventions (Akkadian and Persian cuneiform, and Maya writing). This work studies the representation of vowel length and glottalization in Nahuatl hieroglyphic writing. Analyzing the structure of the phonetic inventory of signs, the behavior of phonograms in phonetic complementation, and the use of logograms in rebus spellings, we conclude that vowel length was not recorded in Nahuatl hieroglyphic writing, neither through specialized phonograms nor through other scribal conventions. Glottal stops (V’), however, may have been represented sometimes through the convention of vowel insertion (-CV1-V1)

Tone and word length across languages

The aim of this paper is to show evidence of a statistical dependency of the presence of tones on word length. Other work has made it clear that there is a strong inverse correlation between population size and word length. Here it is additionally shown that word length is coupled with tonal distinctions, languages being more likely to have such distinctions when they exhibit shorter words. It is hypothesized that the chain of causation is such that population size influences word length, which, in turn, influences the presence and number of tonal distinctions

Sprog og rumlig orientering i livsverdenen

The article claims that language and culture should not be studied separately. Examples from linguistic expressions of space in Danish, Hopi, Yutatec Maya, and Tlapanec are drawn upon to support this view. In Danish, different lexical items describing domestic space are introduced into discourse by different prepositions according to a system revolving around integration and centrality that seems to reflect actual behaviour. It is suggested that this behaviour be studied. A review of studies of linguistic conceptualization of domestic space in Hopi (Whorf & Malotki) and Yucatec (Hanks) shows that lexical structure alone does not pinpoint cultural characteristics - a study of language use is all-important. This is also the case of Tlapanec motion verbs which make a contrast between ‘base’ and ‘non-base’. The correct use of these verbs requires a culturally transmitted knowledge of what belongs where in the world - as do many other forms of behaviour. These observations are followed by a short review of other studies in the field of language and spatial orientation. Finally, the conclusion again stresses the need to integrate linguistic and anthropological thinking. &nbsp

Matthew Restall: The Maya World. Yucatec Culture and Society 1550-1850

Anmeldes af Søren Wichman

Cultural Phylogenetics of the Tupi Language Family in Lowland South America

Background: Recent advances in automated assessment of basic vocabulary lists allow the construction of linguistic phylogenies useful for tracing dynamics of human population expansions, reconstructing ancestral cultures, and modeling transition rates of cultural traits over time. Methods: Here we investigate the Tupi expansion, a widely-dispersed language family in lowland South America, with a distance-based phylogeny based on 40-word vocabulary lists from 48 languages. We coded 11 cultural traits across the diverse Tupi family including traditional warfare patterns, post-marital residence, corporate structure, community size, paternity beliefs, sibling terminology, presence of canoes, tattooing, shamanism, men’s houses, and lip plugs. Results/Discussion: The linguistic phylogeny supports a Tupi homeland in west-central Brazil with subsequent major expansions across much of lowland South America. Consistently, ancestral reconstructions of cultural traits over the linguistic phylogeny suggest that social complexity has tended to decline through time, most notably in the independent emergence of several nomadic hunter-gatherer societies. Estimated rates of cultural change across the Tupi expansion are on the order of only a few changes per 10,000 years, in accord with previous cultural phylogenetic results in other languag

The geography of Chinese science

Chinese scientific output has increased dramatically in recent years, but its internal spatial structure has received scant attention. Estimated gravity models of intercity scientific co-authorships show that there are two types of spatial political bias in China, apart from the expected mass and distance effects. Intercity co-authorships involving Beijing are more common than Beijing’s output volume and location would imply, and this Beijing bias is increasing over time. The second type of spatial political bias is greater intra-provincial collaboration than is accounted for by size and distance. The geography of Chinese science is thus not only monocentric as regards overall scientific output, but also exhibits unusually hierarchical collaboration patterns. Unlike in Europe and North America, national and regional capitals are becoming ever more important as scientific coordination centers

Genomic Relationships, Novel Loci, and Pleiotropic Mechanisms across Eight Psychiatric Disorders

Genetic influences on psychiatric disorders transcend diagnostic boundaries, suggesting substantial pleiotropy of contributing loci. However, the nature and mechanisms of these pleiotropic effects remain unclear. We performed analyses of 232,964 cases and 494,162 controls from genome-wide studies of anorexia nervosa, attention-deficit/hyper-activity disorder, autism spectrum disorder, bipolar disorder, major depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, schizophrenia, and Tourette syndrome. Genetic correlation analyses revealed a meaningful structure within the eight disorders, identifying three groups of inter-related disorders. Meta-analysis across these eight disorders detected 109 loci associated with at least two psychiatric disorders, including 23 loci with pleiotropic effects on four or more disorders and 11 loci with antagonistic effects on multiple disorders. The pleiotropic loci are located within genes that show heightened expression in the brain throughout the lifespan, beginning prenatally in the second trimester, and play prominent roles in neurodevelopmental processes. These findings have important implications for psychiatric nosology, drug development, and risk prediction.Peer reviewe