Workshop on Alternative Approaches to Language Classification, Stanford University, July 17-19, 2007

语言分类替代方法研讨会，斯坦福大学，2007 年 7 月 17-19 日

• 批准号: 0635645
• 负责人: Philip Baldi
• 金额: $ 2.08万
• 依托单位: Pennsylvania State Univ University Park
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2007-01-01 至 2007-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0635645&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Workshop; Alternative; Approaches; Language; Classification

There are somewhere around 6,000 languages spoken today, spread around the world in varying degrees of diversity and density. Except for the rare isolate, i.e. a language which cannot be connected with any known language, the world's languages belong to one of the approximately 250 families of languages which have been securely identified by historical linguists. It is customary to represent these families in branching diagrams known as family trees. Languages are grouped into family trees according to the number of linguistic features that they share in their respective vocabularies, sound systems, and patterns of grammar; languages which are classified in the same family share a common ancestor by definition. This much has been known for some time.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 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.

如今，大约有6,000种语言在世界各地遍布世界各地的多样性和密度。除了稀有的孤立株（即无法与任何已知语言连接的语言）外，世界语言属于大约250种由历史语言学家牢固地识别的语言家庭之一。 习惯上代表这些家庭的分支图，称为家谱。 根据他们在各自的词汇，声音系统和语法模式中共享的语言特征的数量，将语言分为家谱。根据定义，在同一家庭中分类的语言共享一个共同的祖先。 一段时间以来，这众所周知。在过去的二十年中，语言分类的面孔发生了巨大变化，而NSF赞助的语言分类方法的研讨会旨在应对这些变化。 该领域的新发展主要是由于分类方法的持续进展，及其对不仅对语言史的更深入了解，而且对人类历史的更深刻理解。可以在当代研究流中识别三个不同但互锁的电流。 第一个基于遗传图，试图识别遗传距离与语言隶属关系之间的关系。 第二个基于考古学，研究了人们的人口运动与他们对语言树建筑的影响之间的关系。 最后，数学和计算模型采用定量方法来分析语言相关性，并提供了评估隶属关系和时间深度的策略。 在这个研讨会中，总共九名专家，每个研究领域的三名专家将在三天的公开演讲和辩论中解决这些发展。 主题包括语言的地理和时间起源，语言与人类遗传标记之间的联系，世界语言之间的更深层次的关系，人口运动与家谱的分支之间的关系以及建立时间区域以分离相关语言。