Unraveling linguistic diversity through the lens of natural experiments │ Lecture IV │ D. E. Blasi

In this course we will approach the study of worldwide linguistic diversity under the point of view of observational statistical inference. The guiding question of the course will be: what can be learned about the nature of language given the limited and contingent sample of languages that we got to observe and document? We will investigate what can be inferred from the aggregation of comparative linguistic data (including large-scale typological datasets,

→Strands 1+2+3), and what models of human cognition, behavior, and history are implied by those inferences. The course will be interdisciplinary but tailored for non specialists, combining comparative linguistics, biological anthropology, statistical inference, cultural evolution, as well as an array of observations from other disciplines.

IV. Special languages and the limits of linguistic diversity

Beyond the traditional set of languages studied by linguists, there is a plethora of linguistic systems that are defined by common functional and structural features. These systems hold precious information about the boundaries of the design space of language (→Strand 2). We survey the most well known classes of these languages, and we zero-in into creole and vanishing languages (→Strand 3), and how they reveal important facts about the mechanisms shaping language structure.