Publications
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On constructing a research model for historical cognitive linguistics (HCL): Some theoretical considerations. Vrije Universiteit Brussel
This paper examines how historical cognitive linguistics can benefit methodologically
through the application of the notion of language as a complex adaptive system. The idea
that languages are complex adaptive systems (CAS) was introduced initially in computational
evolutionary linguistics, a discipline that was and remains inspired by biological,
systems theoretical approaches to the evolution of life. Here the way that the ...
through the application of the notion of language as a complex adaptive system. The idea
that languages are complex adaptive systems (CAS) was introduced initially in computational
evolutionary linguistics, a discipline that was and remains inspired by biological,
systems theoretical approaches to the evolution of life. Here the way that the ...
Fluid Construction Grammar for Historical and Evolutionary Linguistics Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Fluid Construction Grammar is becoming increasingly more popular with historical and evolutionary linguists to answer a broader range of questions previously out of reach. Fluid Construction grammar can be used to operationalize different stages of language change and the grammaticalization processes that drive this change.
Historical Linguistics Ghent University
Linguists and archaeologists offer complementary viewpoints on human behaviour and culture in past African communities. While historical-comparative linguistics commonly deals with the immaterial traces of the past in Africa’s present-day languages, archaeology unearths the material vestiges of ancient cultures. Even if both sciences share similar core concepts, their methods, data and interpretive frameworks are profoundly different. Explaining ...
Millennia of Language Change: Sociolinguistic Studies in Deep Historical Linguistics. Trudgill, Peter. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2020. 170 pp. Hb (9781108477390) £59.99, Pb (9781108708647) £19.99, Ebk (9781108852166) £14.50 Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Word prediction in computational historical linguistics Vrije Universiteit Brussel
In this paper, we investigate how the prediction paradigm from machine learning and Natural Language Processing (NLP) can be put to use in computational historical linguistics. We propose word prediction as an intermediate task, where the forms of unseen words in some target language are predicted from the forms of the corresponding words in a source language. Word prediction allows us to develop algorithms for phylogenetic tree reconstruction, ...
Agent-based modelling in historical linguistics. A model of the regularisation pressure on the Dutch verbs. Vrije Universiteit Brussel
This article presents an accessible introduction to agent-based modelling for non-computational linguists, more specifically historical linguists, who may find it to be a useful addition to their methodological toolbox. We will discuss both the possibilities and limitations of this technique and in doing so, attempt to show how computational modelling can be complementary with the empirical methods of historical linguists. Furthermore, this ...
LFG and historical linguistics Ghent University
This chapter looks at the opportunities and perspectives that LFG offers for the study of language change, surveying existing LFG approaches within historical linguistics and providing examples of sample phenomena. We discuss how reanalysis, a major driver of language change, can be accounted for elegantly within LFG's parallel architecture thanks to its crucial separation of form from function and, moreover, how different types of reanalysis ...