An Extension of Greenberg’s Linguistic Diversity Measures
An Extension of Greenberg’s Linguistic Diversity Measures
复制标题
格林伯格语言多样性措施的延伸
作者：
S. Lieberson
1. 1956年，格林伯格提出了语言多样性的八项措施，旨在确定某些划定区域的人口之间的沟通可能性。“注意到世界各地在语言多样性方面存在相当大的差异，格林伯格的措施使我们能够在一个连续体上量化这种多样性，从完全多样性，例如没有两个人说相互理解的语言或方言，到另一个极端，所有居民共享一种共同的语言。通过超越仅仅口头描述一个地区的语言多样性，这些量化措施使我们能够将语言使用与社会，经济，政治和地理因素联系起来。
1. In 1956, Greenberg proposed eight measures of linguistic diversity designed to determine the possibilities of communication among the population of some delimited area.' Taking note of the considerable variance between areas of the world in their linguistic diversity, Greenberg's measures allow us to quantify this diversity on a continuum ranging from complete diversity, such that no two people speak a mutually intelligible language or dialect, to the other extreme, where all inhabitants share a common tongue. By going beyond mere verbal descriptions of an area's linguistic diversity, these quantitative measures enable us to correlate language usage with social, economic, political, and geographic factors.