Usage frequency and lexical class determine the evolution of kinship terms in Indo-European
Royal Society Open Science • Vol/Iss. 6(10) • The Royal Society • • Published In • Pages: ??•
By Rácz, Péter, Passmore, Sam, Sheard, Catherine, Jordan, Fiona M.
Hypothesis
The rate of replacement for Indo-European kinship terms is correlated with their usage frequency.
Note
"We found a negative correlation between how often a kin term is used in the languages in our sample and its estimated rate of replacement (est = −0.58, s.d. = 0.07, t = −8.72)."
| Test Name | Support | Significance | Coefficient | Tail |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Phylogenetic comparative methods | Supported | UNKNOWN | UNKNOWN | UNKNOWN |
| Variable Name | Variable Type | OCM Term(s) |
|---|---|---|
| Rate of word replacement | Dependent | Vocabulary |
| Frequency of word use | Independent | Vocabulary |