A method of language sampling

TY - JOUR

T1 - A method of language sampling

AU - Rijkhoff, Jan

AU - Bakker, Dik

AU - Hengeveld, Kees

AU - Kahrel, Peter

N1 - Italian translation: Rijkhoff, Jan, Dik Bakker, Kees Hengeveld e Peter Kahrel. 1999. Un metodo di campionatura linguistica. In Sonia Cristofaro and Paolo Ramat (eds.), Introduzione alla tipologia linguistica. Rome: Carocci. ISBN: 9788843012916

PY - 1993

Y1 - 1993

N2 - In recent years more attention is paid to the quality of language samples in typological work. Without an adequate sampling strategy, samples may suffer from various kinds of bias. In this article we propose a sampling method in which the genetic criterion is taken as the most important: samples created with this method will reflect optimally the diversity of the languages of the world. On the basis of the internal structure of each genetic language tree a measure is computed that reflects the linguistic diversity in the language families represented by these trees. This measure is used to determine how many languages from each phylum should be selected, given any required sample size.

AB - In recent years more attention is paid to the quality of language samples in typological work. Without an adequate sampling strategy, samples may suffer from various kinds of bias. In this article we propose a sampling method in which the genetic criterion is taken as the most important: samples created with this method will reflect optimally the diversity of the languages of the world. On the basis of the internal structure of each genetic language tree a measure is computed that reflects the linguistic diversity in the language families represented by these trees. This measure is used to determine how many languages from each phylum should be selected, given any required sample size.

M3 - Journal article

SN - 0378-4177

VL - 17

SP - 169

EP - 203

JO - Studies in Language

JF - Studies in Language

IS - 1

ER -