Developing an annotation framework for word formation processes in comparative linguistics

Word formation plays a central role in human language. Yet computational approaches to historical linguistics often pay little attention to it. This means that the detailed findings of classical historical linguistics are often only used in qualitative studies, yet not in quantitative studies. Based...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inSKASE journal of theoretical linguistics Vol. 17; no. 1; pp. 2 - 26
Main Authors Schweikhard, Nathanael E, List, Johann-Mattis
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published The Slovak Association for the Study of English 01.06.2020
Subjects
China
Germany
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Summary:Word formation plays a central role in human language. Yet computational approaches to historical linguistics often pay little attention to it. This means that the detailed findings of classical historical linguistics are often only used in qualitative studies, yet not in quantitative studies. Based on human- and machine-readable formats suggested by the CLDF-initiative, we propose a framework for the annotation of cross-linguistic etymological relations that allows for the differentiation between etymologies that involve only regular sound change and those that involve linear and non-linear processes of word formation. This paper introduces this approach by means of sample datasets and a small Python library to facilitate annotation. Keywords: language comparison, cognacy, morphology, word formation, computer-assisted approaches
ISSN:1336-782X
1336-782X