Investigating the impact of sample size on cognate detection

Johann-Mattis List (1)

1 Forschungszentrum Deutscher Sprachatlas

In historical linguistics, the problem of cognate detection is traditionally approached within the frame-work of the comparative method. Since the method is usually carried out manually, it is very flexible regarding its input parameters. However, while the number of languages and the selection of comparanda is not important for the successfull application of the method, the sample size of the comparanda is. In order to shed light on the impact of sample size on cognate detection, an automatic method that closely mimics the comparative method is applied to a large dataset of varying sample sizes. The results clearly show that an increase in sample size is also accompanied by an increase in accurracy of the automatic method.

Mots clés: historical linguistics; cognate detection; sample size

Domaines: Linguistique

Johann-Mattis List. Investigating the impact of sample size on cognate detection. Comparative-Historical Linguistics Of the XXIst Century: Issues and Perspectives, Mar 2013, Moscow, Russia. ⟨hal-00804694⟩