Shiers, N. L., Aston, John A. D., Smith, J. Q. and Coleman, S. J. (2017) Gaussian tree constraints applied to acoustic linguistic functional data. Journal of Multivariate Analysis, 154 . pp. 199-215. doi:10.1016/j.jmva.2016.09.015

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Abstract

Evolutionary models of languages are usually considered to take the form of trees. With the development of so-called tree constraints the plausibility of the tree model assumptions can be assessed by checking whether the moments of observed variables lie within regions consistent with Gaussian latent tree models. In our linguistic application, the data set comprises acoustic samples (audio recordings) from speakers of five Romance languages or dialects. The aim is to assess these functional data for compatibility with a hereditary tree model at the language level. A novel combination of canonical function analysis (CFA) with a separable covariance structure produces a representative basis for the data. The separable-CFA basis is formed of components which emphasize language differences whilst maintaining the integrity of the observational language-groupings. A previously unexploited Gaussian tree constraint is then applied to component-by-component projections of the data to investigate adherence to an evolutionary tree. The results highlight some aspects of Romance language speech that appear compatible with an evolutionary tree model but indicates that it would be inappropriate to model all features as such.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Subjects:	P Language and Literature > P Philology. Linguistics Q Science > QA Mathematics
Divisions:	Faculty of Science > Statistics
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Phonetics, Romance languages -- mathematical models
Journal or Publication Title:	Journal of Multivariate Analysis
Publisher:	Academic Press
ISSN:	0047-259X
Official Date:	February 2017
Dates:	Date Event February 2017 Published 11 October 2016 Available 28 September 2016 Accepted 26 September 2015 Submitted
Date of first compliant deposit:	14 November 2016
Volume:	154
Page Range:	pp. 199-215
DOI:	10.1016/j.jmva.2016.09.015
Status:	Peer Reviewed
Publication Status:	Published
Access rights to Published version:	Open Access
Funder:	Economic and Social Research Council (Great Britain) (ESRC), Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), Arts & Humanities Research Council (Great Britain) (AHRC)
Grant number:	ES/I90427/1 (ESRC), EP/K021672/2 (EPSRC), AH/M002993/1 (AHRC)
RIOXX Funder/Project Grant:	Project/Grant ID RIOXX Funder Name Funder ID ES/I90427/1 [ESRC] Economic and Social Research Council http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000269 EP/K021672/2 [EPSRC] Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000266 AH/M002993/1 [AHRC] Arts and Humanities Research Council http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000267
Open Access Version:	Publisher

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