Lexical diversity in kinship across languages and dialects

Area of Science:

• Computational linguistics
• Lexicography
• Linguistic anthropology

Background:

• Lexicons often fail to represent the full diversity of language, including phenomena like lexical gaps and untranslatability.
• Existing computational lexical resources lack comprehensive data on linguistic diversity.
• Kinship terminology is a well-documented area of linguistic and cultural diversity.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce and validate a method for enriching computational lexicons with linguistic diversity content.
• To computationally represent and analyze diversity in kinship terminology across different languages and dialects.
• To provide insights into the extent of linguistic diversity within culturally and linguistically proximate communities.

Main Methods:

• Developed a novel method for incorporating linguistic diversity into computational lexicons.
• Conducted two large-scale case studies focusing on kinship terminology.
• Analyzed kinship terms across seven Arabic dialects and three Indonesian languages.

Main Results:

• Successfully enriched computational lexicons with data on linguistic diversity.
• Quantified and visualized diversity in kinship terminology within Arabic and Indonesian language groups.
• Demonstrated the method's effectiveness in capturing nuanced linguistic variations.

Conclusions:

• The proposed method effectively enhances computational lexicons with linguistic diversity.
• Significant linguistic diversity in kinship terms exists even within closely related language communities.
• The generated resources offer valuable data for linguistics research and computational applications.