Mathematical Modelling and Analysis of Language Diversification

  • Date: March 21, 2005
  • Time: 8:30 AM to 5 PM
  • Location: Cronkhite Living Room, Cronkhite Graduate Center, 6 Ash Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
  • Hosted by The Program for Evolutionary Dynamics at Harvard University
  • Organizers: Jay Jasanoff (The Department of Linguistics at Harvard) and Tandy Warnow (The Program for Evolutionary Dynamics at Harvard)

    Questions related to human evolution -- such as where we first originated as a species and how we spread across the globe -- have a fundamental appeal and fascination to scientists as well as the lay public. Some of the most interesting approaches to these questions involve reconstructing evolutionary histories for language families, a problem that involves mathematics, computer science, statistics, and linguistics, as well as drawing insights and inspiration from biology. This workshop will include four research talks covering some of the recent attempts made to infer the evolutionary history of the Indo-European language family, and will be followed by a panel discussion in which the proposed models and methods will be critiqued by leading historical linguists with respect to data and known history.

    List of speakers and panelists:

  • Andrew Garrett (speaker), The Department of Linguistics, The University of California at Berkeley.
  • Jay Jasanoff (panelist and co-chair), The Department of Linguistics, Harvard University.
  • Brett Kessler (speaker), The Department of Psychology, Washington University.
  • James Matisoff (panelist), The Department of Linguistics, The University of California at Berkeley.
  • Steve Evans (speaker), The Departments of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of California at Berkeley.
  • Donald Ringe (panelist), The Department of Linguistics, The University of Pennsylvania.
  • Tandy Warnow (speaker and co-chair), The Program for Evolutionary Dynamics at Harvard.

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