The Language Family as a Field for Historical Reconstruction

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2232133
AutoresDavid F Aberle (autor de correspondencia)
Año1984
Volumen40
Número1
Páginas129-136
Fecha de publicación1984-04-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaJournal of Anthropological Research (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0091-7710 • E-ISSN: 2153-3806
EditorialUniversity of Chicago Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1086/jar.40.1.3629695
OpenAlexW1586965250
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas6
Referencias citadas3

Distributional data within a family of contemporary languages can serve to reconstruct characteristics of the culture of its proto-speech community and of intermediate mesolanguages. Much depends on methodological rigor. Hence the most secure reconstructions are based on lexical reconstruction. Less secure, but still valuable reconstructions can be made from the distribution of nonlinguistic kinds of data (e.g., rules of descent). In either case the focus of reconstruction is clearer than for areal reconstructions cross-cutting language families. Athapaskan serves as the principal example of the application of the proposed methods

Computer security · Descent (aeronautics) · Distribution (mathematics) · Field (mathematics) · Focus (optics) · Geography · Linguistics · Physics · Principal (computer security) · Computer Science · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Linguistics and Cultural Studies · Mathematics · Multilingual Education and Policy · Philosophy