Comments on methodology and evidence in Sino-Tibetan comparative linguistics

• Main Author: LaPolla, Randy J.
• Other Authors: School of Humanities and Social Sciences
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2014
• Subjects: DRNTU::Humanities::Linguistics
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/96242; http://hdl.handle.net/10220/20451; http://www.ling.sinica.edu.tw/v7-1-3.asp.htm
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

This paper presents epistemological and methodological problems found in work on the subgrouping of Sino-Tibetan languages and the reconstruction of features of the languages. A key problem is the lack of an accepted standard for judging this work, one that can stand up to statistical evaluation. An...