Chundra Cathcart
Biographic Data
| ID | 773434 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Chundra Cathcart |
| GIVEN NAMES | Chundra |
| FAMILY NAME | Cathcart |
| SIGNATURE | CATHCART C |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Zurich |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-3066-4532 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 18 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 19 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 18 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2014 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Complexity counts
Good enough for Galton, and much more
Article Good enough for Galton, and much more: commentary on “Replication and methodological robustness in quantitative typology” by Becker and Guzmán Naranjo was published on October 1, 2025 in the journal Linguistic Typology (volume 29, issue 3)
Frederik Hartmann
Short vs Long Stem Alternations in Romance Verbal Inflection
Some verbs in Romance (e.g. the reflexes of faciō ‘do’, dīcō ‘say’, habeō ‘have’, sapiō ‘know’, possum ‘be able’, and volō ‘want’) display alternations between a short (e.g. It. f‐are , f‐a , d‐ire ) and a long (e.g. It. fac‐evo , dic‐e , dic‐evo ) stem. This paper contains an exploration of the lexical and paradigmatic distribution of these stem alternations across Romance varieties to trace when they emerged, how and why. The results suggest a …
The evolution of similarity avoidance
The cross-linguistic under-representation of adjacent consonants sharing a place of articulation within uninflected lexical items is well documented. At the same time, little is known regarding the specific diachronic mechanisms involved in the emergence and maintenance of this pattern. Phylogenetic analyses provide some support for the idea that adjacent identical consonants within words arise infrequently, but stronger support for the idea that…
Dialectal Layers in West Iranian
This paper addresses a series of complex and unresolved issues in the historical phonology of West Iranian languages, (Persian, Kurdish, Balochi, and other languages), which display a high degree of irregular, non‐Lautgesetzlich behaviour. Most of this irregularity is undoubtedly due to language contact; I argue, however, that an oversimplified view of the processes at work has prevailed in the literature on West Iranian dialectology, with specia…
Areal pressure in grammatical evolution
This article investigates the evolutionary and spatial dynamics of typological characters in 117 Indo-European languages. We partition types of change (i.e., gain or loss) for each variant according to whether they bring about a simplification in morphosyntactic patterns that must be learned, whether they are neutral (i.e., neither simplifying nor introducing complexity) or whether they introduce a more complex pattern. We find that changes which…
Evolutionary dynamics of Indo-European alignment patterns
This paper employs phylogenetic modeling to reconstruct the alignment system of Indo-European. We use a data set of categorical morphosyntactic features, which take states such as ‘nominative-accusative’, ‘active-stative’, or ‘ergative’. We analyze these characters with a standard Bayesian comparative phylogenetic method, inferring transition rates between character states on the basis of a phylogenetic representation of the languages in the data…
Reconstructing the evolution of Indo-European grammar
Reconstructing the evolution of Indo-European grammar
This study uses phylogenetic methods adopted from computational biology in order to reconstruct features of Proto-Indo-European morphosyntax. We estimate the probability of the presence of typological features in Proto-Indo-European on the assumption that these features change according to a stochastic process governed by evolutionary transition rates between them. We compare these probabilities to previous reconstructions of Proto-Indo-European …
A probabilistic assessment of the Indo-Aryan Inner–Outer Hypothesis
This paper uses a novel data-driven probabilistic approach to address the century-old Inner-Outer hypothesis of Indo-Aryan. I develop a Bayesian hierarchical mixed-membership model to assess the validity of this hypothesis using a large data set of automatically extracted sound changes operating between Old Indo-Aryan and Modern Indo-Aryan speech varieties. I employ different prior distributions in order to model sound change, one of which, the L…
Numeral classifiers and number marking in Indo-Iranian
This paper investigates the origins of sortal numeral classifiers in the Indo-Iranian languages. While these are often assumed to result from contact with non-Indo-European languages, an alternative possibility is that classifiers developed as a response to the rise of optional plural marking. This alternative is in line with the so-called Greenberg-Sanches-Slobin (henceforth GSS ) generalization. The GSS generalization holds that the presence of…
Modeling linguistic evolution
This paper takes a detailed look at some popular models of evolution used in contemporary diachronic linguistic research, focusing on the continuous-time Markov model, a particularly popular choice. I provide an exposition of the math underlying the CTM model, seldom discussed in linguistic papers. I show that in some work, a lack of explicit reference to the underlying computation creates some difficulty in interpreting results, particularly in …
Degrees of Irregular Change
This paper employs a quantitative model of irregular sound change to investigate whether West Iranian languages have developed formally similar functional items via parallelism or via contact. I analyze etymologically related functional items in two Middle and eight New West Iranian languages, comparing observed forms to expected outcomes of these forms on the basis of purely regular sound change. A quantitative model is used to measure the dista…
Ancestry-constrained phylogenetic analysis supports the Indo-European steppe hypothesis
The supplementary materials contain details of our BEAST analyses.Note that in addition to the four blocks of analyses (A-D) mentioned in Experiments ( §6), there is a fifth block of eight analyses (E1-8) in which each ancestral language in A1, in turn, has its ancestry constraint removed
Ancestry-constrained phylogenetic analysis supports the Indo-European steppe hypothesis
Discussion of Indo-European origins and dispersal focuses on two hypotheses. Qualitative evidence from reconstructed vocabulary and correlations with archaeological data suggest that Indo-European languages originated in the Pontic-Caspian steppe and spread together with cultural innovations associated with pastoralism, beginning c. 6500-5500 bp. An alternative hypothesis, according to which Indo-European languages spread with the diffusion of fa…
General Session and Parasession on Language, Gender, and Sexuality
Proceedings of the 37th Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society
Pills, Potions and Devices
This article examines the ameliorative options facing people with hearing loss in mid-nineteenth-century Britain. As reflected in professional journals of the day, medical understanding of diseases and dysfunctions of the ear was limited, yet there was vigorous assertion and counter-claim as to the cause and treatment of problems. At the time, medicine was largely unregulated and quack practitioners were also able to promote their nostrums and se…
Ancestry-constrained phylogenetic analysis supports the Indo-European steppe hypothesis
Discussion of Indo-European origins and dispersal focuses on two hypotheses. Qualitative evidence from reconstructed vocabulary and correlations with archaeological data suggest that Indo-European languages originated in the Pontic-Caspian steppe and spread together with cultural innovations associated with pastoralism, beginning c. 6500-5500 bp. An alternative hypothesis, according to which Indo-European languages spread with the diffusion of fa…
Reconstructing the evolution of Indo-European grammar
This study uses phylogenetic methods adopted from computational biology in order to reconstruct features of Proto-Indo-European morphosyntax. We estimate the probability of the presence of typological features in Proto-Indo-European on the assumption that these features change according to a stochastic process governed by evolutionary transition rates between them. We compare these probabilities to previous reconstructions of Proto-Indo-European …
General Session and Parasession on Language, Gender, and Sexuality
Proceedings of the 37th Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society
Pills, Potions and Devices
This article examines the ameliorative options facing people with hearing loss in mid-nineteenth-century Britain. As reflected in professional journals of the day, medical understanding of diseases and dysfunctions of the ear was limited, yet there was vigorous assertion and counter-claim as to the cause and treatment of problems. At the time, medicine was largely unregulated and quack practitioners were also able to promote their nostrums and se…
Degrees of Irregular Change
This paper employs a quantitative model of irregular sound change to investigate whether West Iranian languages have developed formally similar functional items via parallelism or via contact. I analyze etymologically related functional items in two Middle and eight New West Iranian languages, comparing observed forms to expected outcomes of these forms on the basis of purely regular sound change. A quantitative model is used to measure the dista…
Ancestry-constrained phylogenetic analysis supports the Indo-European steppe hypothesis
The supplementary materials contain details of our BEAST analyses.Note that in addition to the four blocks of analyses (A-D) mentioned in Experiments ( §6), there is a fifth block of eight analyses (E1-8) in which each ancestral language in A1, in turn, has its ancestry constraint removed
Ancestry-constrained phylogenetic analysis supports the Indo-European steppe hypothesis
Discussion of Indo-European origins and dispersal focuses on two hypotheses. Qualitative evidence from reconstructed vocabulary and correlations with archaeological data suggest that Indo-European languages originated in the Pontic-Caspian steppe and spread together with cultural innovations associated with pastoralism, beginning c. 6500-5500 bp. An alternative hypothesis, according to which Indo-European languages spread with the diffusion of fa…
Modeling linguistic evolution
This paper takes a detailed look at some popular models of evolution used in contemporary diachronic linguistic research, focusing on the continuous-time Markov model, a particularly popular choice. I provide an exposition of the math underlying the CTM model, seldom discussed in linguistic papers. I show that in some work, a lack of explicit reference to the underlying computation creates some difficulty in interpreting results, particularly in …
A probabilistic assessment of the Indo-Aryan Inner–Outer Hypothesis
This paper uses a novel data-driven probabilistic approach to address the century-old Inner-Outer hypothesis of Indo-Aryan. I develop a Bayesian hierarchical mixed-membership model to assess the validity of this hypothesis using a large data set of automatically extracted sound changes operating between Old Indo-Aryan and Modern Indo-Aryan speech varieties. I employ different prior distributions in order to model sound change, one of which, the L…
Numeral classifiers and number marking in Indo-Iranian
This paper investigates the origins of sortal numeral classifiers in the Indo-Iranian languages. While these are often assumed to result from contact with non-Indo-European languages, an alternative possibility is that classifiers developed as a response to the rise of optional plural marking. This alternative is in line with the so-called Greenberg-Sanches-Slobin (henceforth GSS ) generalization. The GSS generalization holds that the presence of…
Evolutionary dynamics of Indo-European alignment patterns
This paper employs phylogenetic modeling to reconstruct the alignment system of Indo-European. We use a data set of categorical morphosyntactic features, which take states such as ‘nominative-accusative’, ‘active-stative’, or ‘ergative’. We analyze these characters with a standard Bayesian comparative phylogenetic method, inferring transition rates between character states on the basis of a phylogenetic representation of the languages in the data…
Reconstructing the evolution of Indo-European grammar
Reconstructing the evolution of Indo-European grammar
This study uses phylogenetic methods adopted from computational biology in order to reconstruct features of Proto-Indo-European morphosyntax. We estimate the probability of the presence of typological features in Proto-Indo-European on the assumption that these features change according to a stochastic process governed by evolutionary transition rates between them. We compare these probabilities to previous reconstructions of Proto-Indo-European …
Dialectal Layers in West Iranian
This paper addresses a series of complex and unresolved issues in the historical phonology of West Iranian languages, (Persian, Kurdish, Balochi, and other languages), which display a high degree of irregular, non‐Lautgesetzlich behaviour. Most of this irregularity is undoubtedly due to language contact; I argue, however, that an oversimplified view of the processes at work has prevailed in the literature on West Iranian dialectology, with specia…
Areal pressure in grammatical evolution
This article investigates the evolutionary and spatial dynamics of typological characters in 117 Indo-European languages. We partition types of change (i.e., gain or loss) for each variant according to whether they bring about a simplification in morphosyntactic patterns that must be learned, whether they are neutral (i.e., neither simplifying nor introducing complexity) or whether they introduce a more complex pattern. We find that changes which…
The evolution of similarity avoidance
The cross-linguistic under-representation of adjacent consonants sharing a place of articulation within uninflected lexical items is well documented. At the same time, little is known regarding the specific diachronic mechanisms involved in the emergence and maintenance of this pattern. Phylogenetic analyses provide some support for the idea that adjacent identical consonants within words arise infrequently, but stronger support for the idea that…
Frederik Hartmann
Short vs Long Stem Alternations in Romance Verbal Inflection
Some verbs in Romance (e.g. the reflexes of faciō ‘do’, dīcō ‘say’, habeō ‘have’, sapiō ‘know’, possum ‘be able’, and volō ‘want’) display alternations between a short (e.g. It. f‐are , f‐a , d‐ire ) and a long (e.g. It. fac‐evo , dic‐e , dic‐evo ) stem. This paper contains an exploration of the lexical and paradigmatic distribution of these stem alternations across Romance varieties to trace when they emerged, how and why. The results suggest a …
Good enough for Galton, and much more
Article Good enough for Galton, and much more: commentary on “Replication and methodological robustness in quantitative typology” by Becker and Guzmán Naranjo was published on October 1, 2025 in the journal Linguistic Typology (volume 29, issue 3)
Complexity counts
Linguistics (13 works) · Computer Science (11 works) · Language and cultural evolution (10 works) · Philosophy (9 works) · Artificial Intelligence (7 works) · History (7 works) · Mathematics (7 works) · Biology (6 works) · Linguistic Variation and Morphology (6 works) · Linguistics and language evolution (6 works)