On the Methodology of Areal Investigation
On the Methodology of Areal Investigation

Summary/Abstract: The author of the present paper discusses the problem of the areal classification of languages as well as the problem of interpretation of linguistic features as distinctive ones for a Sprachbund. The main idea consists in applying an appropriate methodology by which one could describe such a union as follows: languages belong to a Sprachbund in various degrees as they may have various inventories of features in question; one and the same feature in various languages may reflect various stages of historical development, or one feature may reflect a contamination of two or more different linguistic phenomena. What the author proposes is the application of the fuzzy set theory.

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