WORKSHOP ON
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During
the past two decades the face of language classification has changed
dramatically, and the NSF sponsored workshop on Alternative Approaches
to Language Classification aims to respond to these changes. New developments in this area are due mainly
to ongoing advances in classification methodology, and their implications
for a deeper understanding not only of language history, but of human
history as well. Three distinct, but interlocking currents can be identified
in contemporary research streams. The first, based on genetic
mapping, attempts to identify the relationship between genetic distance
between populations and linguistic affiliation. The second, based
on archaeology, studies the relationship between demographic movements
of peoples and their implications for the architecture of language
trees. Finally, mathematical and computational models employ
quantitative methods for the analysis of linguistic relatedness and
provide strategies for assessing affiliation and time depth. In
this workshop a total of nine specialists, three in each research area,
will address these developments over three days of public presentations
and debate. Topics include such issues as the geographical and
temporal origins of language, the connection between languages and
human genetic markers, the deeper relationships among the world's languages,
the relationship between population movements and the branching of
family trees, and the establishment of temporal zones for the separation
of related languages. |