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Temporal phylogenetic networks and logic programming

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 August 2006

ESRA ERDEM
Affiliation:
Institute of Information Systems 184/3, Vienna University of Technology, A-1040 Vienna, Austria (e-mail: esra@kr.tuwien.ac.at)
VLADIMIR LIFSCHITZ
Affiliation:
Department of Computer Sciences, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA (e-mail: vl@cs.utexas.edu)
DON RINGE
Affiliation:
Department of Linguistics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA (e-mail: dringe@unagi.cis.upenn.edu)

Abstract

The concept of a temporal phylogenetic network is a mathematical model of evolution of a family of natural languages. It takes into account the fact that languages can trade their characteristics with each other when linguistic communities are in contact, and also that a contact is only possible when the languages are spoken at the same time. We show how computational methods of answer set programming and constraint logic programming can be used to generate plausible conjectures about contacts between prehistoric linguistic communities, and illustrate our approach by applying it to the evolutionary history of Indo-European languages.

Type
Regular Papers
Copyright
2006 Cambridge University Press

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