Johann-Mattis List
Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Deutscher Platz 6
04103 Leipzig
phone: +49 341 3550 283
e-mail: mattis_list@[>>> Please remove the text! <<<]eva.mpg.de
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Personal Website Personal Blog
About me
I am a full professor at the University of Passau, leading the Chair of Multilingual Computational Linguistics. Until March 2024, I also lead an independent research group at the Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig. The research carried out in our CALC/MCL Lab at Passau and our research group in Leipzig takes inspiration from bioinformatics and computer science to tackle problems in comparative linguistics and to provide solutions for multilingual problems in computational linguistics. In my research, I generally follow a data-driven, empirical, and quantitative perspective on language change and language history. In contrast to pure computational approaches, however, I try to keep my research closely connected to traditional historical linguistics and theory, following a computer-assisted rather than a computer-based framework of quantitative research in historical linguistics.
Curriculum Vitae
| since 01/2023 | Full professor at the University of Passau, leading the Chair of Multilingual Computational Linguistics |
| since 03/2021 | Senior scientist in the Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology |
| 01/2017-02/2021 | Senior scientist in the Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History |
| 1/2015-12/2016 | DFG research fellow at the Centre de Recherches Linguistique sur l'Asie Orientale (EHESS) and Université Pierre et Marie Curie (Team "Adaptation, Integration, Reticulation, Evolution") |
| 10/2012-12/2014 | Post-doctoral researcher at Philipps-University Marburg |
| 02/2009-09/2012 | Doctoral student at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (Historical Linguistics) |
| 25.06.2008 | Magister Artium: Major Subject: Comparative-Historical Linguistics (Freie University Berlin), Minor Subjects: Sinology (Freie University Berlin), Russian Philology (Humboldt-University Berlin) |
| 09/2007-01/2008 | Visiting student at Fúdàn University Shànghǎi (Linguistics and Applied Linguistics, taught in Chinese) |
| 09/2005-07/2006 | Language student at Fudan University Shanghai |
| 2003-2008 | Studies at Freie University Berlin and Humbold-University Berlin (Major Subject: Comparative-Historical Linguistics, Minor Subjects: Sinology, Russian Philology) |
| 10/2002-09/2003 | Studies at Eberhard-Karls-University Tübingen (Major Subject: Rhetorics, Minor Subjects: Modern History, Comparative Literature Studies, Russian Philology) |
My full and always up-to-date CV is available for download here.
Publications
List, J.-M., Forkel, R., Greenhill, S. J., Rzymski, C., Englisch, J., & Gray, R. D. (2022). Lexibank, a public repository of standardized wordlists with computed phonological and lexical features. Scientific Data, 9: 316. |
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Bodt, T. A., & List, J.-M. (2022). Reflex prediction: A case study of Western Kho-Bwa. Diachronica. |
Open AccessPower, J. M., Grimm, G. W., & List, J.-M. (2020). Evolutionary dynamics in the dispersal of sign languages. Royal Society Open Science, 7(1). |
Jackson, J. C., Watts, J., Henry, T. R., List, J.-M., Forkel, R., Mucha, P. J., Greenhill, S. J., Gray, R. D., & Lindquist, K. A. (2019). Emotion semantics show both cultural variation and universal structure. Science, 366, 1517-1522. |
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Jacques, G., & List, J. M. (2019). Save the trees why we need tree models in linguistic reconstruction (and when we should apply them). Journal of Historical Linguistics, 9(1), 128-166. |
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Sagart, L., Jacques, G., Lai, Y., Ryder, R. J., Thouzeau, V., Greenhill, S. J., & List, J.-M. (2019). Dated language phylogenies shed light on the ancestry of Sino-Tibetan. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 116(21), 10317-10322. |
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List, J.-M. (2019). Automatic inference of sound correspondence patterns across multiple languages. Computational Linguistics, 45(1), 137-161. |
2023
List, J.-M. (2023). Evolutionary aspects of language change. In A. du Crest ( |
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List, J.-M. (2023). Inference of partial colexifications from multilingual wordlists. Frontiers in Psychology, 14: 1156540. |
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Tjuka, A., Forkel, R., & List, J.-M. (2023). Curating and extending data for language comparison in Concepticon and NoRaRe. Open Research Europe, 2: 141. |
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Steuer, J., List, J.-M., Abdullah, B. M., & Klakow, D. (2023). Information-theoretic characterization of vowel harmony: A cross-linguistic study on word lists. In Proceedings of the 5th Workshop on Research in Computational Linguistic Typology and Multilingual NLP (pp. 96-109). Dubrovnik, Croatia: Association for Computational Linguistics. |
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Zariquiey, R., Vera, J., Greenhill, S. J., Valenzuela, P., Gray, R. D., & List, J.-M. (2023). Untangling the evolution of body-part terminology in Pano: conservative versus innovative traits in body-part lexicalization. Interface Focus, 13(1): 20220053. |
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Wu, M.-S., & List, J.-M. (2023). Annotating cognates in phylogenetic studies of Southeast Asian languages (advance online). Language Dynamics and Change, 1-37. |
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Blum, F., & List, J.-M. (2023). Trimming phonetic alignments improves the inference of sound correspondence patterns from multilingual wordlists. In L. Beinborn, K. Goswami, S. Muradoğlu, A. Sorokin, R. Kumar, A. Scherbakov, E. M. Ponti, R. Cotterell, & E. Vylomova ( |
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Greenhill, S. J., Haynie, H. J., Ross, R. M., Chira, A.-M., List, J.-M., Campbell, L., Botero, C. A., & Gray, R. D. (2023). A recent northern origin for the Uto-Aztecan family. Language, 99(1), 81-107. |
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Lai, Y., & List, J.-M. (2023). Lexical data for the historical comparison of Rgyalrongic languages. Open Research Europe, 3: 99. |
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Miller, J. E., & List, J.-M. (2023). Detecting lexical borrowings from dominant languages in multilingual wordlists. In Proceedings of the 17th Conference of the European Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics. Short Papers (pp. 2591-2597). Association of Computational Linguistics. |
2022
Brid, N., Messineo, C., & List, J.-M. (2022). A comparative wordlist for the languages of The Gran Chaco, South America [version 2; peer review: 2 approved]. Open Research Europe, 2(90). |
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Hantgan, A., & List, J.-M. (2022). Bangime: secret language, language isolate, or language island? A computer‐assisted case study. Papers in Historical Phonology, 7, 1-43. |
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Brid, N., List, J.-M., & Messineo, C. (2022). Patrones léxicos compartidos en el dominio etnobiológico de las lenguas del Chaco: Análisis preliminar de patrones léxicos compartidos en el dominio etnobiológico. [The languages of the Gran Chaco from the perspective of lexical semantics: Preliminary analysis of shared lexical structures in the ethnobotanical domain]. LIAMES: Línguas Indígenas Americanas, 22: e022005. |
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List, J.-M., Forkel, R., Greenhill, S. J., Rzymski, C., Englisch, J., & Gray, R. D. (2022). Lexibank, a public repository of standardized wordlists with computed phonological and lexical features. Scientific Data, 9: 316. |
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Tjuka, A., Forkel, R., & List, J.-M. (2022). Linking norms, ratings, and relations of words and concepts across multiple language varieties. Behavior Research Methods, 54, 864-884. |
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Bodt, T. A., & List, J.-M. (2022). Reflex prediction: A case study of Western Kho-Bwa. Diachronica. |
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Lai, Y., & List, J.-M. (2022). [Book review] Geoffrey Sampson: Voices from early China: The odes demystified. 445 pp. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars’ Press, 2020. £67.99. ISBN 978-1-5275-5212-8. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 85(1), 136-138. |
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Hantgan, A., Babiker, H., & List, J.-M. (2022). First steps towards the detection of contact layers in Bangime: A multi-disciplinary, computer-assisted approach. Open Research Europe, 2: 10. |
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Geisler, H., & List, J.-M. (2022). Of word families and language trees: New and old metaphors in studies on language history. Moderna, 24(1-2), 134-148. |
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Jackson, J., Watts, J., List, J.-M., Drabble, R., & Lindquist, K. (2022). From text to thought: How analyzing language can advance psychological science. Perspectives on Psychological Science. |
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List, J. M. (2022). Chances and challenges for quantitative approaches in Chinese historical phonology. Bulletin of Chinese Linguistics, 15, 131-143. |
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List, J. M. (2022). Correcting a bias in TIGER rates resulting from high amounts of invariant and singleton cognate sets. Journal of Language Evolution, 7(1), 53-58. |
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List, J.-M., Forkel, R., & Hill, N. (2022). A new framework for fast automated phonological reconstruction using trimmed alignments and sound correspondence patterns. In N. Tahmasebi, S. Montariol, A. Kutozov, S. Hengchen, H. Dubossarsky, & L. Borin ( |
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List, J.-M., Vylomova, E., Forkel, R., Hill, N. W., & Cotterell, R. D. (2022). The SIGTYP 2022 shared task on the prediction of cognate reflexes. In E. Vylomova, E. Ponti, & R. Cotterell ( |
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Tresoldi, T., Rzymski, C., Forkel, R., Greenhill, S. J., List, J.-M., & Gray, R. D. (2022). Managing historical linguistic data for computational phylogenetics and computer-assisted language comparison. In A. L. Berez-Kroeker, B. McDonnel, & E. Koller ( |
2021
Evans, C. L., Greenhill, S. J., Watts, J., List, J.-M., Botero, C. A., Gray, R. D., & Kirby, K. (2021). The uses and abuses of tree thinking in cultural evolution. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Series B: Biological Sciences, 376(1828): 20200056. |
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Geisler, H., Forkel, R., & List, J.-M. (2021). A digital, retro-standardized edition of the Tableaux Phonétiques des Patois Suisses Romands (TPPSR). In A. Thibault, M. Avanzi, & N. Lo Vecchio ( |
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List, J.-M. (2021). Computer-assisted approaches to historical language comparison. Habilitation Thesis, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität, Jena. |
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List, J.-M., & Forkel, R. (2021). Automated identification of borrowings in multilingual wordlists. Open Research Europe, 1: 79. |
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List, J.-M., Sims, N. A., & Forkel, R. (2021). Toward a sustainable handling of interlinear-glossed text in language documentation. ACM Transactions on Asian and Low-Resource Language Information Processing, 20(2), 1-15. |
2020
Miller, J. E., Tresoldi, T., Zariquiey, R., Castañón, C. A. B., Morozova, N., & List, J.-M. (2020). Using lexical language models to detect borrowings in monolingual wordlists. PLoS One, 0242709. |
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List, J.-M. (2020). Improving data handling and analysis in the study of rhyme patterns. Cahiers de linguistique Asie orientale, 49(1), 43-57. |
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Schweikhard, N. E., & List, J.-M. (2020). Developing an annotation framework for word formation processes in comparative linguistics. SKASE Journal of Theoretical Linguistics, 17(1), 2-26. |
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Wu, M.-S., Schweikhard, N. E., Bodt, T. A., Hill, N. W., & List, J.-M. (2020). Computer-Assisted Language Comparison: State of the Art. Journal of Open Humanities Data, 6(2). |
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Power, J. M., Grimm, G. W., & List, J.-M. (2020). Evolutionary dynamics in the dispersal of sign languages. Royal Society Open Science, 7(1). |
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Rzymski, C., Tresoldi, T., Greenhill, S. J., Wu, M.-S., Schweikhard, N. E., Koptjevskaja-Tamm, M., Gast, V., Bodt, T. A., Hantgan, A., Kaiping, G. A., Chang, S., Lai, Y., Morozova, N., Arjava, H., Hübler, N., Koile, E., Pepper, S., Proos, M., Epps, B. V., Blanco, I., Hundt, C., Monakhov, S., Pianykh, K., Ramesh, S., Gray, R. D., Forkel, R., & List, J.-M. (2020). The database of cross-linguistic colexifications, reproducible analysis of cross-linguistic polysemies. Scientific Data, 7: 13. |
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Forkel, R., & List, J.-M. (2020). CLDFBench: Give your cross-linguistic data a lift. In N. Calzolari, F. Béchet, P. Blache, K. Choukri, C. Cieri, T. Declerck, S. Goggi, H. Ishara, B. Maegaard, H. M. Mariani, A. Moreno, J. Odijk, & S. Piperidis ( |
2019
Jackson, J. C., Watts, J., Henry, T. R., List, J.-M., Forkel, R., Mucha, P. J., Greenhill, S. J., Gray, R. D., & Lindquist, K. A. (2019). Emotion semantics show both cultural variation and universal structure. Science, 366, 1517-1522. |
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List, J.-M. (2019). Beyond edit distances: Comparing linguistic reconstruction systems. Theoretical Linguistics, 45(3-4), 247-258. |
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List, J.-M. (2019). Automated methods for the investigation of language contact, with a focus on lexical borrowing. Language and Linguistics Compass, 13(10): e12355. |
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Jacques, G., & List, J. M. (2019). Save the trees why we need tree models in linguistic reconstruction (and when we should apply them). Journal of Historical Linguistics, 9(1), 128-166. |
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Bodt, T. A., & List, J.-M. (2019). Testing the predictive strength of the comparative method: An ongoing experiment on unattested words in Western Kho‐Bwa languages. Papers in Historical Phonology, 4, 22-44. |
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Sagart, L., Jacques, G., Lai, Y., Ryder, R. J., Thouzeau, V., Greenhill, S. J., & List, J.-M. (2019). Dated language phylogenies shed light on the ancestry of Sino-Tibetan. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 116(21), 10317-10322. |
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List, J.-M. (2019). Automatic inference of sound correspondence patterns across multiple languages. Computational Linguistics, 45(1), 137-161. |
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Hill, N. W., & List, J.-M. (2019). Using Chinese character formation graphs to test proposals in Chinese historical Phonology. Bulletin of Chinese Linguistics, 12(2), 186-200. |
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List, J.-M., Hill, N. W., & Foster, C. J. (2019). Towards a standardized annotation of rhyme judgments in Chinese historical phonology (and beyond). Journal of Language Relationship, 17(1), 26-43. |
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List, J.-M., Lai, Y., & Starostin, G. S. (2019). „Old chinese and friends“: New approaches to historical linguistics of the Sino-Tibetan area. Journal of Language Relationship, 17(1-2). |
2018
Forkel, R., List, J.-M., Greenhill, S. J., Rzymski, C., Bank, S., Cysouw, M., Hammarström, H., Haspelmath, M., Kaiping, G. A., & Gray, R. D. (2018). Cross-Linguistic Data Formats, advancing data sharing and re-use in comparative linguistics. Scientific Data, 5: 180205. |
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List, M., Walworth, M., Greenhill, S. J., Tresoldi, T., & Forkel, R. (2018). Sequence comparison in computational historical linguistics. Journal of Language Evolution, 3(2), 130-144. |
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Rama, T., List, J.-M., Wahle, J., & Jäger, G. (2018). Are automatic methods for cognate detection good enough for phylogenetic reconstruction in historical linguistics? In Proceedings of the 2018 Conference of the North American Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics: Human Language Technologies (pp. 393-400). Association for Computational Linguistics. |
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Anderson, C., Tresoldi, T., Chacon, T., Fehn, A.-M., Walworth, M., Forkel, R., & List, J.-M. (2018). A cross-linguistic database of phonetic transcription systems. Yearbook of the Poznan Linguistic Meeting, 4(1), 21-53. |
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Jäger, G., & List, J.-M. (2018). Using ancestral state reconstruction methods for onomasiological reconstruction in multilingual word lists. Language Dynamics and Change, 8(1), 22-54. |
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List, J.-M., Greenhill, S. J., Anderson, C., Mayer, T., Tresoldi, T., & Forkel, R. (2018). CLICS2: An improved database of cross-linguistic colexifications assembling lexical data with the help of cross-linguistic data formats. Linguistic Typology, 22(2), 277-306. |
2017
Hill, N. W., & List, J.-M. (2017). Challenges of annotation and analysis in computer-assisted language comparison: A case study on Burmish languages. Yearbook of the Poznan Linguistic Meeting, 3(1), 47-76. |
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List, J.-M. (2017). A web-based interactive tool for creating, inspecting, editing, and publishing etymological datasets. In Association for Computational Linguistics (EACL) ( |
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List, J.-M., Greenhill, S. J., & Gray, R. D. (2017). The Potential of automatic word comparison for historical linguistics. PLoS One, 12(1): 0170046. |
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List, J.-M. (2017). Contraction. In R. Sybesma ( |
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List, J.-M. (2017). Fāngyán 方言. In R. Sybesma ( |
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List, J.-M. (2017). Using network models to analyze Old Chinese rhyme data. Bulletin of Chinese Linguistics, 9(2), 218-241. |
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List, J.-M., Pathmanathan, J. S., Hill, N. W., Bapteste, E., & Lopez, P. (2017). Vowel purity and rhyme evidence in Old Chinese reconstruction. Lingua sinica, 3: 5. |
2016
List, J.-M., Pathmanathan, J. S., Lopez, P., & Bapteste, E. (2016). Unity and disunity in evolutionary sciences: Process-based analogies open common research avenues for biology and linguistics. Biology Direct, 11(1): 39. |
2014
List, J.-M., Nelson-Sathi, S., Geisler, H., & Martin, W. (2014). Networks of lexical borrowing and lateral gene transfer in language and genome evolution. Bioessays, 36(2), 141-150. |
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List, J.-M., Nelson-Sathi, S., Martin, W., & Geisler, H. (2014). Using phylogenetic networks to model Chinese dialect history. Language Dynamics and Change, 4(2), 222-252. |
2012
List, J.-M. (2012). SCA: Phonetic alignment based on sound classes. In D. Lassite, & M. Slavkovik ( |
2011
Holman, E. W., Brown, C. H., Wichmann, S., Müller, A., Velupillai, V., Hammarström, H., Sauppe, S., Jung, H., Bakker, D., Brown, P., Belyaev, O., Urban, M., Mailhammer, R., List, J.-M., & Egorov, D. (2011). Automated dating of the world's language families based on lexical similarity. Current Anthropology, 52(6), 841-875. |
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Nelson-Sathi, S., List, J.-M., Geisler, H., Fangerau, H., Gray, R. D., Martin, W., & Dagan, T. (2011). Networks uncover hidden lexical borrowing in Indo-European language evolution. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 278(1713), 1794-1803. |
2010
Wichmann, S., Holman, E. W., Müller, A., Velupillai, V., List, J.-M., Belyaev, O., Urban, M., & Bakker, D. (2010). Glottochronology as a heuristic for genealogical language relationships. Journal of Quantitative Linguistics, 17(4), 303-316. |