Re: Network model of IE languages from McMahon and McMahon (2005)

From: mkelkar2003
Message: 48400
Date: 2007-04-30

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Richard Wordingham" <richard@...>
wrote:
>
> --- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "mkelkar2003" <swatimkelkar@>
wrote:
>
> > "In figure 6.9(a), English appears quite clearly as a North
Germanic
> > language.
>
> Which is in itself cause for alarm, as English is not a North
Germanic
> language.
>
> > In Figure 6.9 (b), however, the recoding of that single
> > item (wing) as a loan means English appears outside the North
Germanic
> > branch. Indeed, in Figure 6.9 (b) English falls outside Germanic
> > branch altogether, due to the influence of borrowings from
Romance.
> > These have been entirely appropriately coded as borrowings, or
unique
> > items, in the database, but cumulative effects of all these unique
> > states is to distance English from the other Germanic languages
which
> > do not share them.
>
> If you are classifying by similarity, this is an entirely reasonable
> consequence. It is for this sort of reason that some try to use
> synapomorphies when drawing up genealogical trees.
>
> Note the parallels between Romany and English.
>
> Richard.

Review of McMahon and McMahon 2005 by John Nerbonne

http://www.let.rug.nl/~nerbonne/papers/McMahon-Review-by-Nerbonne-
final.pdf


>