Darwin-L Message Log 3:95 (November 1993)

Academic Discussion on the History and Theory of the Historical Sciences

This is one message from the Archives of Darwin-L (1993–1997), a professional discussion group on the history and theory of the historical sciences.

Note: Additional publications on evolution and the historical sciences by the Darwin-L list owner are available on SSRN.

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<3:95>From DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu  Tue Nov 23 22:01:38 1993

Date: Tue, 23 Nov 1993 23:09:26 -0400 (EDT)
From: DARWIN@iris.uncg.edu
Subject: Computers in Historical Linguistics (fwd from LINGUIST)
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Organization: University of NC at Greensboro

The following announcement of a conference on computer applications in
historical linguistics comes from the LINGUIST list; I thought it might be
of interest to some of the members of Darwin-L.  I'm convinced that historical
linguists could benefit from examining the wide range of software that is now
available in the systematics community for the reconstruction of evolutionary
trees.  There is no reason why programs such as PAUP and MacClade, widely
used by systematists interested in phylogenetic inference, could not be
applied to problems in the historical relationships of languages as well.
(They do seem to work reasonably well for the reconstruction of manuscript
stemmata.)  MacClade is perhaps the best of these programs for the novice,
and it is now commercially available:

  Maddison, Wayne P., & David R. Maddison.  1992.
  MacClade, Version 3.  Sunderland, Massachusetts: Sinauer
  Associates.  (ISBN 0-87893-490-1)

Bob O'Hara (darwin@iris.uncg.edu)

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LINGUIST List:  Vol-4-973. Mon 22 Nov 1993. ISSN: 1068-4875.

Subject: 4.973 Conf: Round Table on Computer Applications in Historical Ling

Date: Sun, 21 Nov 1993 17:27:01 -0800
From: jblowe@garnet.berkeley.edu (John Brandon Lowe)
Subject: Round Table Program

 *********************************************************************
 * Round Table on Computer Applications in Historical Linguistics  *
 *                       *
 *   Third and final announcement and  tentative program   *
 *                       *
 *     December 8, 1993  10h00 to 18h00      *
 *   Professor's Lounge, Universite Libre, Brussels, Belguim   *
 *********************************************************************

The first in a series of round tables to discuss the application of computers
in historical linguistics will be held in conjunction with the 1993 Annual
Conference of the Linguistic Society of Belgium, devoted this year to "Sound
Change", to be held in Brussels from December 9-11, 1993.

For information about the conference itself, please contact Dr. D. Demolin
(ddemoli@ulb.ac.be).

If you are interested in attending the round table or wish to continue to
receive (or not receive) email about it and perhaps other mailings about
computational historical linguistics, please contact either:

 John B. Lowe           Martine Mazaudon
 University of California       C.N.R.S.
 Berkeley             Paris
 jblowe@garnet.berkeley.edu       ULTO006%FRORS31.bitnet
 1-510 643-9910 (voice)       33.1.45.80.96.73 (voice)
 1-510 643-9911 (fax)         33.1.45.80.59.83 (fax)

For the first such *informal* one-day gathering we invite anyone interested in
any aspect of this broad topic to attend.  The list of presentations and
demonstrations is tentative.  While the participants listed below are all
"confirmed", there may still be revisions or additions.  There is still time
for other presentations, though we would be able to confirm any time slots
until the round table itself.  We look forward to see you in Brussels!

PRESENTATIONS AND DEMONSTRATIONS
10h00 to 12h30 and 13h30 to 16h30 (approx.)

(Presenters: please plan to bring whatever software you have to demonstrate,
and let us know what hardware and presentation equipment you need.)

  Lee Hartman: IBM-compatible based program for testing sound change
   models, and a discussion of questions of notation.

  John Hewson: A computer-generated dictionary of Proto-Algonquian.

  Jean-Marie Hombert and Joel Brogniart: ALFA, Atlas Linguistique
   Fang -- a multi-media multi-media Macintosh database for linguistic
   atlas maps -- applied to Fang, Bantu, Cameroon.

  John Lowe and Martine Mazaudon: The Reconstruction Engine (RE), a
   program for checking correspondance rules and assembling cognate
   sets from individual dictionaries.

  John Lowe: Two etymological database projects: STEDT (the Sino-
   Tibetan Etymological Dictionary and Thesaurus) and CBOLD: (the
   Comparative Bantu Online Dictionary).

  Boyd Michailovsky: Using LEXWARE on a comparative database --
   application to Kiranti, Nepal.

  Ann Marynissen: Corpus-based research on noun inflexion in 13th
   century Middle Dutch.

  Robert Nicolai: MARIAMA, a data base for historical comparative
   linguistics, currently applied to Nilo-Saharan.

  Marc Thouvenot: GENOR, a spelling generator -- a means to retrieve
   lexical items with non standardized spelling from texts.

  Annelies Wouters: "An Atlas of Old-Netherlandic," an electronic
   database of Dutch place-names before 1225 A.D.

 ROUND TABLE DISCUSSION 17h00 to 18h00 (approx.)

  All interested parties are invited to discuss the day's events, to
  speculate about future developments, and to otherwise exchange ideas.
  In particular, the discussion will focus on desiderata for software in
  historical research.

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