TY  - CHAP
AU  - Cysouw, Michael
ED  - Wiese, Heike
ED  - Simon, Horst J.
AB  - In this article, the distribution of rare features among the world’s languages is investigated based on the data from the World Atlas of Language Structures (Haspelmath et al. 2005). A Rarity Index for a language is defined, resulting in a listing of the world’s languages by mean rarity. Further, a Group Rarity Index is defined to be able to measure average rarity of genealogical or areal groups. One of the most exceptional geographical areas turns out to be northwestern Europe. A closer investigation of the characteristics that make this area exceptional concludes this article.
DO  - 10.1515/9783110219098.411
ID  - OAPEN ID: 1006355
ID  - OAPEN ID: OCN: 1135844931
KW  - General Linguistics
L1  - https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/id/c23358a8-100a-4a14-b7f8-da0cefc09efb/25_[9783110219098 - Expecting the Unexpected Exceptions in Grammar] Quantitative explorations.pdf
LA  - English
LK  - http://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/23785
PB  - De Gruyter
PP  - Berlin/Boston
PY  - 2011
SN  - 9783110219081
TI  - Chapter Quantitative explorations of the worldwide distribution of rare characteristics, or : the exceptionality of northwestern European languages
ER  - 
