A stability metric for typological features

Abstract

Abstract In this paper we propose a method to measure the stability of typological features given a data set such as HASPELMATH et al. (2005). We determine the frequency with which one and the same value of a feature occurs in shallow genealogical groupings ('genus′ level). If the languages within such a group tend to show the same value, there is reason to believe that the feature is inherently more stable than if much variation is found within such groups. The proposed metric may be used to evaluate the utility of linguistic features when employing typological data for inferring genealogical relationships among languages.