Hostname: page-component-75d7c8f48-hfkw9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-03-13T18:08:23.193Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Dialects as Optimal Communication Networks

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 March 2026

Joseph E. Grimes
Joseph E. Grimes*
Affiliation:
Cornell University and Summer Institute of Linguistics
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Intelligibility tests between dialects give results with three characteristics that need to be taken into account in their interpretation: asymmetry, sensitivity to changes in threshold, and incompleteness. If we interpret dialects as networks of communication arrived at by optimization, we make adequate use of these properties.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Language , Volume 50 , Issue 2 , June 1974 , pp. 260 - 269
Copyright
Copyright © 1974 Linguistic Society of America

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Bellman, Richard E., & Dreyfus, Stuart E. 1962. Applied dynamic programming. Princeton: University Press.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Biggs, Bruce. 1957. Testing intelligibility among Yuman languages. IJAL 23. 57–62.Google Scholar
Bradley, C. Henry. 1968. A method for determining dialectal boundaries and relationships. América Indígena 28. 751–60.Google Scholar
Dyen, Isidore. 1962. The lexicostatistically determined relationship of a language group. IJAL 28. 153–61.Google Scholar
Ellegård, Alvar. 1959. Statistical measurement of linguistic relationship. Lg. 35. 131–56.Google Scholar
Gass, Saul I. 1964. Linear programming: methods and applications. 2nd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Grimes, Joseph E. 1964. Measures of linguistic divergence. Proceedings of the 9th International Congress of Linguists, Cambridge, Mass., ed. by Lunt, Horace G., 44–50. The Hague: Mouton.Google Scholar
Grimes, Joseph E., & Agard, Frederick B. 1959. Linguistic divergence in Romance. Lg. 35. 598–604.Google Scholar
Hickerson, Harold, Turner, Glen D.; & Hickerson, Nancy P. 1952. Testing procedures for estimating transfer of information among Iroquois dialects and languages. IJAL 18. 1–8.Google Scholar
Kirk, Paul L. 1970. Dialect intelligibility testing: the Mazatec study. IJAL 36. 205–11.Google Scholar
Kroeber, A. L. 1960. Statistics, Indo-European, and taxonomy. Lg. 36. 1–21.Google Scholar
Rea, John A. 1958. Concerning the validity of lexicostatistics. IJAL 24. 145–50.Google Scholar