--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "mkelkar2003" <swatimkelkar@...> wrote:
>
> Please see McMahon and McMahon 2005.pdf in the files section. The
> boxes indicate reticulations or the possibility of multiple parents.
> The model is very far from a perfect tree. IIr is the cleanest branch
> with no interactions with other branches.
>
> M. Kelkar
>
> McMahon, April and McMahon Robert (2005). Language Classification by
> Numbers. New York: Oxford University Press.
>
"However, as Thomason (ibid. 11) observes, "It is not just words that
get borrowed: all aspects of language structure are subject to
transfer from one language to another, give the right mix of social
and linguistic circumstances." (McMahon and McMahon 2005, pp. 77-78)."
"Returning to Thomason's remaining typological categories, there is
general agreement that in relatively casual contact situations
borrowing is likely to be restricted to non-basic vocabulary; but as
contact becomes more intense there may be borrowing of basic
vocabulary, and also structural borrowing of phonology, morphology and
syntax (McMahon and McMahon 2005, p. 78)."
"In figure 6.9(a), English appears quite clearly as 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. It is notable that the coding of even a single
item can have such a powerful effect on the structure of the graph
(McMahon and McMahon, p. 154, third parenthesis added)."
McMahon April, and McMahon Robert (2005). Language classification by
numbers. New York: Oxford University Press.
M. Kelkar