Quantifying Language Dynamics ― On the Cutting Edge of Areal and Phylogenetic Linguistics

Drawing upon data from the phonologies, morphologies, numeral systems, constituent orders, case systems, and lexicons of the world’s languages, Quantifying Language Dynamics introduces new, quantitative methodologies for understanding language contact, evolution, and patterns of phylogenetic descent.

Jeff Good, Ph.D. (2003), University of California, Berkeley, is Associate Professor of Linguistics at the University at Buffalo. His research interests include comparative Niger-Congo linguistics, morphosyntactic typology, and language documentation. He has published in Language, Diachronica, and Morphology, among others, and serves as General Editor of Language Dynamics and Change.Soren Wichmann, Ph.D. (1996), University of Copenhagen, is Senior Scientist at Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and works on historical linguistics, typology, and Mesoamerican languages, often applying quantitative, computational methods. He is founder and General Editor of the journal Language Dynamics and Change.Contributors are: Christian Bentz, Will Chang, Hans Geisler, Tom Guldemann, Harald Hammarstrom, Gerhard Jager, Johann-Mattis List, William Martin, Lev Michael, Shijulal Nelson-Sathi, Frank Seifart, Tammy Stark, and Bodo Winter.