The Parametric Comparison Method (PCM) is a procedure of phylogenetic reconstruction that, for the first time, uses abstract
cognitive structures (syntactic parameters) as historical comparanda; thanks to their universal and discrete nature, these
entities allow precise measurements of crosslinguistic distances even between long-separated languages, a task
unattainable through traditional comparative methods, mostly due to the lack of sound regularities beyond established
language families. Contrary to most claims over the past two centuries, the PCM has demonstrated that grammars retain
deep historical signals and has been successful in studying cross-family language relations in Eurasia.
This project takes up the challenge of pushing the historical power of the PCM toward deeper levels of comparison,
previously unexplored for lack of methods able to extract deep historical signals from languages. If successful, it will open
groundbreaking perspectives for a modern cognitive approach to linguistic prehistory and historical anthropology.
We will extend parametric comparisons to two areas which display a high degree of language diversity and whose past is
controversial in many respects: Southeast Asia and the Pacific, and the Americas. We will address hotly debated and
methodologically vexed issues concerning the phylogenetic structure and historical relations of their languages/populations
through a radically new approach. We will explore typologically diverse and often highly endangered languages whose
heritage is at high risk of being lost forever, thus contributing to their preservation and to our understanding of the variation
allowed by human syntax. In so doing, we will generate computational phylogenies based on syntactic data only. After
assessing their statistical robustness, we will compare them to the classifications proposed in the literature (whenever
available at all) and to recent discoveries in archaeology and population genetics, aiming at a synthetic approach to human
prehistory.