Contents -- List of Figures -- List of Tables -- 1 How do Linguists Classify Languages? -- 1. 1 Classification and Language Families -- 1. 2 The Comparative Method -- 1. 2. 1 An Outline of the Method -- 1. 2. 2 Validating the Comparative Method -- 1. 2. 3 Some Limitations of the Comparative Method -- 1. 3 Mass Comparison -- 1. 4 Why Historical Linguists Need Quantitative Methods -- 2 Lexicostatistics -- 2. 1 Comparing Like with Like -- 2. 2 Classical Lexicostatistics -- 2. 3 Objections to Lexicostatistics -- 2. 4 Testing Methods -- 3 Tree-based Quantitative Approaches: Computational Cladistics -- 3. 1 Probability-based Approaches -- 3. 1. 1 Real and Apparent Patterns -- 3. 1. 2 Probability for Beginners -- 3. 1. 3 Probability and Language Comparison -- 3. 2 Computerizing the Comparative Method -- 3. 2. 1 Introducing Computational Cladistics -- 3. 2. 2 Computational Cladistics and Contact -- 4 Tree-based Quantitative Approaches: Sublists -- 4. 1 Excluding Lexical Borrowing -- 4. 2 Identifying and Using Lexical Borrowings -- 4. 3 An Initial Test: Optimal List Length -- 4. 4 Subdividing Meaning Lists -- 4. 4. 1 The Dyen, Kruskal, and Black (1992) Database -- 4. 4. 2 Tree-drawing and Tree-selection Programs: Verifying What We Know . . . -- 4. 4. 3 . . . and Finding Something New -- 4. 4. 4 Testing the Hypothesis of Borrowing -- 5 Correlations Between Genetic and Linguistic Data -- 5. 1 The 'New Synthesis' -- 5. 2 Correlations between Genetics and Linguistics: Cautions and Caveats -- 5. 3 Evidence for Correlations -- 5. 3. 1 Genetic Evidence and Sampling -- 5. 3. 2 Four Specific Studies -- 5. 3. 3 The Contribution of Contact -- 5. 4 Looking Forward -- 6 Climbing Down from the Trees: Network Models -- 6. 1 Network Representations in Biology -- 6. 1. 1 Problems with Trees -- 6. 1. 2 Networks in Genetics -- 6. 1. 3 Split Decomposition.

6. 2 Applying Network to Linguistic Data -- 6. 2. 1 Comparing Linguistic and Biological Data -- 6. 2. 2 Network and Borrowing: Simulated Data -- 6. 2. 3 Network and Borrowing: Real Data -- 6. 3 Distance-based Network Methods -- 6. 3. 1 Distance-based Versus Character-based Approaches -- 6. 3. 2 Split Decomposition and Distance Data -- 6. 3. 3 Distance-based Methods and Linguistic Data -- 6. 3. 4 Applying NeighbourNet Beyond Indo-European -- 6. 4 The Uses of Computational and Quantitative Methods -- 7 Dating -- 7. 1 Lexicostatistics and Glottochronology -- 7. 1. 1 Troublesome Terms -- 7. 1. 2 Glottochronology: Practice and Problems -- 7. 2 Dating and Time Depth in Linguistics and Biology -- 7. 3 Dating Brought Up to Date -- 7. 4 General Problems for Dating -- 8 Quantitative Methods Beyond the Lexicon -- 8. 1 Today the Lexicon, Tomorrow . . . -- 8. 2 Key Questions for Phonetic Comparison -- 8. 3 Nerbonne and Heeringa's Approach to Phonetic Similarity -- 8. 4 Heggarty (forthcoming) -- Heggarty, McMahon, and McMahon (forthcoming) -- 8. 5 Phonetic Similarity and Dialect Comparison for English -- 8. 6 Summing Up -- References -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- Y -- Z.