CHIELD: the causal hypotheses in evolutionary linguistics database

Seán G. Roberts; Anton Killin; Angarika Deb; Catherine Sheard; Simon J. Greenhill; Kaius Sinnemäki; José Segovia-Martín; Jonas Nölle; Aleksandrs Berdicevskis; Archie Humphreys-Balkwill; Hannah Little; Christopher Opie; Guillaume Jacques; Lindell Bromham; Peeter Tinits; Robert M. Ross; Sean Lee; Emily Gasser; Jasmine Calladine; Matthew Spike; Stephen Francis Mann; Olena Shcherbakova; Ruth Singer; Shuya Zhang; Antonio Benítez-Burraco; Christian Kliesch; Ewan Thomas-Colquhoun; Hedvig Skirgård; Monica Tamariz; Sam Passmore; Thomas Pellard; Fiona Jordan

doi:10.1093/jole/lzaa001

CHIELD: the causal hypotheses in evolutionary linguistics database

Seán G. Roberts, Anton Killin, Angarika Deb, Catherine Sheard, Simon J. Greenhill, Kaius Sinnemäki, José Segovia-Martín, Jonas Nölle, Aleksandrs Berdicevskis, Archie Humphreys-Balkwill, Hannah Little, Christopher Opie, Guillaume Jacques, Lindell Bromham, Peeter Tinits, Robert M. Ross, Sean Lee, Emily Gasser, Jasmine Calladine, Matthew SpikeStephen Francis Mann, Olena Shcherbakova, Ruth Singer, Shuya Zhang, Antonio Benítez-Burraco, Christian Kliesch, Ewan Thomas-Colquhoun, Hedvig Skirgård, Monica Tamariz, Sam Passmore, Thomas Pellard, Fiona Jordan

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

24 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Language is one of the most complex of human traits. There are many hypotheses about how it originated, what factors shaped its diversity, and what ongoing processes drive how it changes. We present the Causal Hypotheses in Evolutionary Linguistics Database (CHIELD, https://chield.excd.org/), a tool for expressing, exploring, and evaluating hypotheses. It allows researchers to integrate multiple theories into a coherent narrative, helping to design future research. We present design goals, a formal specification, and an implementation for this database. Source code is freely available for other fields to take advantage of this tool. Some initial results are presented, including identifying conflicts in theories about gossip and ritual, comparing hypotheses relating population size and morphological complexity, and an author relation network.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	101-120
Number of pages	20
Journal	Journal of Language Evolution
Volume	5
Issue number	2
Early online date	16 Apr 2020
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1093/jole/lzaa001
Publication status	Published - Aug 2020

Keywords

causal graphs
causal inference
database

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10.1093/jole/lzaa001

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Roberts, S. G., Killin, A., Deb, A., Sheard, C., Greenhill, S. J., Sinnemäki, K., Segovia-Martín, J., Nölle, J., Berdicevskis, A., Humphreys-Balkwill, A., Little, H., Opie, C., Jacques, G., Bromham, L., Tinits, P., Ross, R. M., Lee, S., Gasser, E., Calladine, J., ... Jordan, F. (2020). CHIELD: the causal hypotheses in evolutionary linguistics database. Journal of Language Evolution, 5(2), 101-120. https://doi.org/10.1093/jole/lzaa001

@article{219c587e5154414ab2931ad644a60607,

title = "CHIELD: the causal hypotheses in evolutionary linguistics database",

abstract = "Language is one of the most complex of human traits. There are many hypotheses about how it originated, what factors shaped its diversity, and what ongoing processes drive how it changes. We present the Causal Hypotheses in Evolutionary Linguistics Database (CHIELD, https://chield.excd.org/), a tool for expressing, exploring, and evaluating hypotheses. It allows researchers to integrate multiple theories into a coherent narrative, helping to design future research. We present design goals, a formal specification, and an implementation for this database. Source code is freely available for other fields to take advantage of this tool. Some initial results are presented, including identifying conflicts in theories about gossip and ritual, comparing hypotheses relating population size and morphological complexity, and an author relation network.",

keywords = "causal graphs, causal inference, database",

author = "Roberts, {Se{\'a}n G.} and Anton Killin and Angarika Deb and Catherine Sheard and Greenhill, {Simon J.} and Kaius Sinnem{\"a}ki and Jos{\'e} Segovia-Mart{\'i}n and Jonas N{\"o}lle and Aleksandrs Berdicevskis and Archie Humphreys-Balkwill and Hannah Little and Christopher Opie and Guillaume Jacques and Lindell Bromham and Peeter Tinits and Ross, {Robert M.} and Sean Lee and Emily Gasser and Jasmine Calladine and Matthew Spike and Mann, {Stephen Francis} and Olena Shcherbakova and Ruth Singer and Shuya Zhang and Antonio Ben{\'i}tez-Burraco and Christian Kliesch and Ewan Thomas-Colquhoun and Hedvig Skirg{\aa}rd and Monica Tamariz and Sam Passmore and Thomas Pellard and Fiona Jordan",

year = "2020",

month = aug,

doi = "10.1093/jole/lzaa001",

language = "English",

volume = "5",

pages = "101--120",

journal = "Journal of Language Evolution",

issn = "2058-4571",

publisher = "Oxford University Press",

number = "2",

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Roberts, SG, Killin, A, Deb, A, Sheard, C, Greenhill, SJ, Sinnemäki, K, Segovia-Martín, J, Nölle, J, Berdicevskis, A, Humphreys-Balkwill, A, Little, H, Opie, C, Jacques, G, Bromham, L, Tinits, P, Ross, RM, Lee, S, Gasser, E, Calladine, J, Spike, M, Mann, SF, Shcherbakova, O, Singer, R, Zhang, S, Benítez-Burraco, A, Kliesch, C, Thomas-Colquhoun, E, Skirgård, H, Tamariz, M, Passmore, S, Pellard, T & Jordan, F 2020, 'CHIELD: the causal hypotheses in evolutionary linguistics database', Journal of Language Evolution, vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 101-120. https://doi.org/10.1093/jole/lzaa001

TY - JOUR

T1 - CHIELD

T2 - the causal hypotheses in evolutionary linguistics database

AU - Roberts, Seán G.

AU - Killin, Anton

AU - Deb, Angarika

AU - Sheard, Catherine

AU - Greenhill, Simon J.

AU - Sinnemäki, Kaius

AU - Segovia-Martín, José

AU - Nölle, Jonas

AU - Berdicevskis, Aleksandrs

AU - Humphreys-Balkwill, Archie

AU - Little, Hannah

AU - Opie, Christopher

AU - Jacques, Guillaume

AU - Bromham, Lindell

AU - Tinits, Peeter

AU - Ross, Robert M.

AU - Lee, Sean

AU - Gasser, Emily

AU - Calladine, Jasmine

AU - Spike, Matthew

AU - Mann, Stephen Francis

AU - Shcherbakova, Olena

AU - Singer, Ruth

AU - Zhang, Shuya

AU - Benítez-Burraco, Antonio

AU - Kliesch, Christian

AU - Thomas-Colquhoun, Ewan

AU - Skirgård, Hedvig

AU - Tamariz, Monica

AU - Passmore, Sam

AU - Pellard, Thomas

AU - Jordan, Fiona

PY - 2020/8

Y1 - 2020/8

N2 - Language is one of the most complex of human traits. There are many hypotheses about how it originated, what factors shaped its diversity, and what ongoing processes drive how it changes. We present the Causal Hypotheses in Evolutionary Linguistics Database (CHIELD, https://chield.excd.org/), a tool for expressing, exploring, and evaluating hypotheses. It allows researchers to integrate multiple theories into a coherent narrative, helping to design future research. We present design goals, a formal specification, and an implementation for this database. Source code is freely available for other fields to take advantage of this tool. Some initial results are presented, including identifying conflicts in theories about gossip and ritual, comparing hypotheses relating population size and morphological complexity, and an author relation network.

AB - Language is one of the most complex of human traits. There are many hypotheses about how it originated, what factors shaped its diversity, and what ongoing processes drive how it changes. We present the Causal Hypotheses in Evolutionary Linguistics Database (CHIELD, https://chield.excd.org/), a tool for expressing, exploring, and evaluating hypotheses. It allows researchers to integrate multiple theories into a coherent narrative, helping to design future research. We present design goals, a formal specification, and an implementation for this database. Source code is freely available for other fields to take advantage of this tool. Some initial results are presented, including identifying conflicts in theories about gossip and ritual, comparing hypotheses relating population size and morphological complexity, and an author relation network.

KW - causal graphs

KW - causal inference

KW - database

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U2 - 10.1093/jole/lzaa001

DO - 10.1093/jole/lzaa001

M3 - Article

SN - 2058-4571

VL - 5

SP - 101

EP - 120

JO - Journal of Language Evolution

JF - Journal of Language Evolution

IS - 2

ER -

CHIELD: the causal hypotheses in evolutionary linguistics database

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Keywords

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