Spatial Distance and Lexical Replacement

Dados Bibliográficos

ID2911486
AutoresL L Cavalli‐sforza, L L Cavalli-Sforza, William S-y Wang, Wei‐shu Wang (0000-0001-6153-8240)
Ano1986
Volume62
Fascículo1
Páginas38-55
Data de publicação1986-03-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoLanguage (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0097-8507 • E-ISSN: 1535-0665
EditoraProject MUSE (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1353/lan.1986.0115
OpenAlexW1989260668
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas14
Referências citadas11

The ‘stepping-stone’ model has been used to study genetic similarity of peoples as a function of the geographical distances separating them. A gene is represented by one of several alleles, much as a meaning is represented by one of many words. Based on this parallel, the stepping-stone model is here applied to a body of linguistic data from a chain of Micronesian islands. The logarithm of the lexical similarity, when plotted against geographical distance, shows a pronounced upper concavity not found in the genetic investigations. This deviation from linearity is largely caused by non-homogeneity of replacement rates in the words studied. Another contributing factor is that the effect of distance on lexical similarity is much greater for the eastern islands in the group. Rates of replacement in space, computed here, show a significant positive correlation with those in time, computed for a related language or for different groups of languages

Genetic distance · Genetic variation · Geographical distance · Geography · Linguistics · Logarithm · Population · Similarity (geometry) · Sociology · Statistics · Artificial Intelligence · Categorization, perception, and language · Computer Science · Demography · Language and cultural evolution · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Mathematics · Multilingual Education and Policy · Philosophy · Psychology