Postgraduate Course: Phylogenetic Analysis of Language (LASC11122)
Course Outline
| School | School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 10 |
ECTS Credits | 5 |
| Summary | In recent years phylogenetic techniques from evolutionary biology have increasingly been used to address issues in language change and variation. The major shortcomings of earlier quantitative historical linguistic approaches, notably lexicostatistics and glottochronology, have been resolved with the introduction of model-based, likelihood methods such as Bayesian Phylogenetic Inference. |
| Course description |
In this course students will learn the theory and practice of inferring phylogenies of languages and of comparing phylogenetic hypotheses about linguistic and other cultural traits. This will include: modern approaches to identifying dates and geographic locations of events in a language family history; reticulate evolutionary change; distance measures and dialectometry; and the correlations between language and genes and culture. The practical component of the course will will introduce tests for: measuring phylogenetic signal; determining patterns of evolutionary mode (punctuated evolution, Brownian and Ornstein-Uhlenbeck models); ancestral state reconstruction; evolutionary rate and rate variation; correlated evolution; geographically explicit models of evolution.
Lecture 1. Evolutionary diversity of language
Lecture 2. Inferring phylogeny
Lecture 3. Models of language family evolution
Lecture 4. Mode of evolution
Catch-up lab session
Lecture 5. Continuous traits
Lecture 6. Discrete traits
Lecture 7. Evolving complexity
Lecture 8. Phylogenetic approaches to the evolution of meaning and culture
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- infer language phylogenies using modern phylogenetic tools
- define and code linguistic and cultural traits for phylogenetic analysis
- carry out hypothesis testing using a range of modern phylogenetic comparative methods
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Reading List
Dunn, Michael. in press. Language Phylogenies. In: Bowern, Claire and Bethwyn Evans. Handbook of Historical Linguistics. Routledge.
Dunn, Michael, Simon J. Greenhill, Stephen C. Levinson, and Russell D. Gray. 2011. Evolved Structure of Language Shows Lineage-specific Trends in Word- order Universals. Nature 473: 79-82.
Shijulal, Nelson-Sathi, Johann-Mattis List, Hans Geisler, Heiner Fangerau, Russell D. Gray, William Martin, and Tal Dagan. 2011. Networks Uncover Hidden Lexical Borrowing in Indo-European Language Evolution. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 278 (1713): 1794-1803.
Bouckaert, Remco, Philippe Lemey, Michael Dunn, Simon J. Greenhill, Alexander V. Alekseyenko, Alexei J. Drummond, Russell D. Gray, Marc A. Suchard, and Quentin D. Atkinson. 2012. Mapping the Origins and Expansion of the Indo-European Language Family. Science 337 (6097): 957-960.
Fortunato, Laura. 2011a. Reconstructing the History of Marriage Strategies in Indo-European-Speaking Societies: Monogamy and Polygyny. Human Biology 83 (1): 87-105.
Fortunato, Laura. 2011b. Reconstructing the History of Residence Strategies in Indo-European-Speaking Societies: Neo-, Uxori-, and Virilocality. Human Biology 83 (1): 107-128. |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Participants will learn to implement practical interdisciplinary research design bridging humanities and sciences.
Experience in critical assessment of research papers using phylogenetic methods to address linguistic and cultural evolutionary questions and understanding of the role of phylogenetic theory in the study of language variation and change. |
| Additional Class Delivery Information |
Attend all lectures as scheduled |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Michael Dunn
Tel: (0131 6)50 6977
Email: |
Course secretary | Miss Toni Noble
Tel: (0131 6)51 3188
Email: |
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