\documentstyle[nemlap3]{article}

\title{Cross-Entropy and Linguistic Typology}

\author{Patrick Juola \\
Department of Experimental Psychology \\
University of Oxford \\
Oxford, UK  OX1 3UD \\
{\tt patrick.juola@psy.ox.ac.uk}}


\begin{document}
\maketitle

\begin{abstract}

The idea of ``familial relationships'' among languages is
well-established and accepted, although some controversies
persist in a few specific instances.  By painstakingly recording
and identifying regularities and similarities and comparing these
to the historical record, linguists
have been able to produce a general ``family tree'' incorporating
most natural languages.  

Recent work by Wyner (1997) and Juola (1997) suggests that
Kullback-Leibler divergence (or cross-entropy) can be meaningfully
measured from extremely small samples, in some cases as small
as only 20 or so words.  Using these techniques, we define and
measure a distance function between translations of the Bodleian
Declaration, a sample set covering most of the (accepted) Indo-European
family, and reconstruct a relationship tree by hierarchical cluster
analysis.  The resulting tree shows remarkable similarity to the
accepted Indo-European family; this we read as evidence both for
the immense power of this measurement technique and for the
validity of this kind of mechanical similarity judgement in
the identification of typological relationships.
\end{abstract}

\end{document}