The National Museum of Ethnology (Minpaku) is a research center for ethnology and cultural anthropology.

Seminars, Symposia, and Academic Conferences

Sunday, February 10, 2013
《International Symposium》Let’s Talk about Trees

With Lives Streaming on Ustream!　Live!
Sound will be in the original language; for Japanese presentations, please use English captioning services (see below).
Click Here for Simultaneous Captioning (Available for both English and Japanese presentations)
  • Date: Sunday, February 10, 2013
  • Venue: Conference Room 4, National Museum of Ethnology
  • with English-Japanese simultaneous interpretation, Japanese-Japanese Sign Language simultaneous interpretation (for presentations in Japanese), computer screen captioning (for presentations in English)
  • For registration, please send the following information either by e-mail : your name, address, phone or fax number, e-mail address, sign language requirement (if you are a signer) and the date(s) you are interested in participating
  • Registration and inquiries: k4109@minpaku.ac.jp
 

Purpose

The tree model has been commonly used for expressing the genetic relationship of languages. However, there are various aspects of linguistic relationship that cannot be expressed, or may even make a conflict with what is expressed and implied in such a model. In this symposium, with specialists of other disciplines such as cladistics, biology, genetics, which use diagrams to express "relationships" of the targeted objects, we will evaluate, and examine what it means to apply a "tree model" to express linguistic relationships, and what the pitfalls are in doing so.

Program

9:00 a.m. - 9:10 a.m. Registration
9:10 a.m. - 9:30 a.m. [Introduction]
The Application of Tree and Other Diagrams in Historical Linguistics (in English)
KIKUSAWA Ritsuko (National Museum of Ethnology, The Graduate University for Advanced Studies)
Abstract　Video of the Lecture
9:30 a.m. - 10:15 a.m. [Various Tree Models]
Who's to Blame for the Black Sheep? A Study of Reticulation and Classification Performance of Distance-based Language Trees at the Level of Individual Taxa (in English)
Søren WICHMANN (Max Plank Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology)
Abstract　Video of the Lecture
10:15 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. [Various Tree Models]
Phylogenetic Analysis in Evolutionary Genetics (in Japanese)
KIMURA Ryosuke (University of Ryukyu)
Abstract
11:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. Break
11:30 a.m. - 12:50 p.m. [Cladistics]
Tree and Network in Systematics, Stemmatics, and Linguistics: Structural Model Selection in Phylogeny Reconstruction (in Japanese)
MINAKA Nobuhiro (National Institute for Agro-Environmental Sciences and University of Tokyo)
Abstract
12:50 p.m. - 1:45 p.m. Lunch Break
1:45 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. [Linguistics/Migration Theory]
Macrophyletic Trees of East Asian Languages Re-examined (in English)
Weera OSTAPIRAT (Mahidol University)
Abstract
2:30 p.m. - 3:15 p.m. [Philology]
The Tree Model and the Study of Dialects of a Language That is No Longer Spoken: A Case of the Eastern Group of Middle Iranian Languages (in Japanese)
YOSHIDA Yutaka (Kyoto University)
Abstract
3:15 p.m. - 3:35 p.m. Break
3:35 p.m. - 4:20 p.m. [Austronesian Language Case Studies 1]
Modeling the Linguistic Situation in the Philippines (in English)
Lawrence A. REID (University of Hawai'i at Mānoa)
Abstract　Video of the Lecture
4:20 p.m. - 5:05 p.m. [Austronesian Language Case Studies 2]
Limitations of the Tree model: A Case Study from North Vanuatu (in English)
Siva KALYAN (Northumbria University) & Alexandre FRANÇOIS (CNRS/LACITO)
Abstract　Video of the Lecture
5:05 p.m. - 5:25 p.m. Break
5:25 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. Comments
SAITOU Naruya (National Institute of Genetics, The Graduate University for Advanced Studies, and University of Tokyo)

Responses to the Comments and Discussion
Presenters and Participants