*** note unusual day, time and venue ***

Friday 12th December 11am, DSB 3.10

Damian Blasi (MPI Leipzig)

Linguistics meets data science

My work stems from classic questions in typological-functional linguistics: what aspects of languages are similar or different across lineages and regions? Do similar patterns of use, social composition and/or ecology shape similar grammars? I will argue, however – uncontroversially I hope – that counting languages in contingency tables is simply not enough to address these questions, and that the methods and research strategies used in the data sciences are those which will most reliably lead to a coherent, empirical and typologically-informed science of language. I will illustrate this with three examples from my research: the existence of robust and widespread sound-meaning associations in basic vocabulary, commonalities underlying creole languages, and causation within the structure of the lexicon.

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