Darwin-L Message Log 4:10 (December 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.

<4:10>From sally@pogo.isp.pitt.edu  Sun Dec  5 07:52:35 1993

To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Subject: Re: Ancestral and derived character states in systematics
Date: Sun, 05 Dec 93 08:56:04 -0500
From: Sally Thomason <sally@pogo.isp.pitt.edu>

Bob O'Hara's clear and interesting explanation of ancestral
and derived character states in systematics is easier for
linguists to understand than he might have expected, because
the criterion matches our criterion for subgrouping in a language
family tree: shared innovations provide evidence for subgrouping,
shared inherited features don't.  Same principle exactly.
His egg examples are more fun than our stop > fricative
changes (for instance), though.

  Sally Thomason
  sally@pogo.isp.pitt.edu