An automated method is presented for the commensurable, reproducible measurement of duration and lenition of segment types ranging from fully occluded stops to highly lenited variants, in acoustic data. The method is motivated with respect to the relationship between acoustic and articulatory phonetics and, through subsequent evaluation, is argued to correspond well to articulation. It is then applied to the phonemic stops of casual speech in Gurindji (Pama-Nyungan, Australia) to investigate the nature of their articulatory targets. The degree of stop lenition is found to vary widely. Contrary to expectations, no evidence is found of a positive effect on lenition due to word-medial (relative to word-initial) position, beyond that attributable to duration; nor do non-coronals lenite more than their apical counterparts, which freely lenite along a continuum towards taps. No significant effect is found of preceding or following vocalic environment. Taken together, the observed lenition, duration, and peak intensity velocities are argued to be inconsistent with a single, fully-occluded articulatory 'stop' target which is undershot at short durations, rather targets can be understood to span a range or 'window' of values in the sense of Keating (1990), from fully-occluded stop-like targets to more approximantlike targets. It is an open question to what degree the patterns found in Gurindji are language particular, or can be related to the organization of obstruent systems in Australian languages more broadly. Precisely comparable studies of additional languages will be especially valuable in addressing these questions and others, and are possible using the method we introduce.

Debate over whether phonaesthemes are part of morphology has been long and inconclusive. We contend that this is because the properties that characterise individual phonaesthemes and those that characterise individual morphological units are neither sufficiently disjunct nor sufficiently overlapping to furnish a clear answer, unless resort is made to relatively aprioristic exclusions from the set of 'relevant' data, in which case the answers follow directly and uninterestingly from initial assumptions. In response, we pose the question: 'According to what criteria, if any, do phonaesthemes distinguish themselves from non-phonaesthemic, stem-building elements?', and apply the methods of Canonical Typology to seek answers. Surveying the literature, we formulate seven canonical criteria, identifying individual phonaesthemes which are more, or less, canonical according to each. We next apply the same criteria to assess non-phonaesthemic stem-building elements. The result is that just one criterion emerges which clearly differentiates the two sets of phenomena, namely the canonical accompaniment of phonaesthemes by non-recurrent residues, and this finding is not predetermined by our assumptions. From the viewpoint of morphological theory more broadly, we assume that any viable theory must find a place for lexical stems which are composed of a recurring, sound-meaning pairing plus a non-recurrent residue. Most phonaesthemes will occur in such stems. Consequently, theoretically interesting questions can then be asked about this entire class of lexical stems, including but not limited to its phonaesthemic members. Whether they are 'part of morphology' or not, phonaesthemes can contribute coherently to the development of morphological theory.

BackgroundPrehistoric human activities have contributed to the dispersal of many culturally important plants. The study of these traditional interactions can alter the way we perceive the natural distribution and dynamics of species and communities. Comprehensive research on native crops combining evolutionary and anthropological data is revealing how ancient human populations influenced their distribution. Although traditional diets also included a suite of non-cultivated plants that in some cases necessitated the development of culturally important technical advances such as the treatment of toxic seed, empirical evidence for their deliberate dispersal by prehistoric peoples remains limited. Here we integrate historic and biocultural research involving Aboriginal people, with chloroplast and nuclear genomic data to demonstrate Aboriginal-mediated dispersal of a non-cultivated rainforest tree.ResultsWe assembled new anthropological evidence of use and deliberate dispersal of Castanospermum australe (Fabaceae), a non-cultivated culturally important riparian tree that produces toxic but highly nutritious water-dispersed seed. We validated cultural evidence of recent human-mediated dispersal by revealing genomic homogeneity across extensively dissected habitat, multiple catchments and uneven topography in the southern range of this species. We excluded the potential contribution of other dispersal mechanisms based on the absence of suitable vectors and current distributional patterns at higher elevations and away from water courses, and by analyzing a comparative sample from northern Australia.ConclusionsInnovative studies integrating evolutionary and anthropological data will continue to reveal the unexpected impact that prehistoric people have had on current vegetation patterns. A better understanding of how traditional practices shaped species’ distribution and assembly will directly inform cultural heritage management strategies, challenge “natural” species distribution assumptions, and provide innovative baseline data for pro-active biodiversity management.

Linguistics, and typology in particular, can have a bright future. We justify this optimism by discussing comparability from two angles. First, we take the opportunity presented by this special issue of Linguistic Typology to pause for a moment and make explicit some of the logical underpinnings of typological sciences, linguistics included, which we believe are worth reminding ourselves of. Second, we give a brief illustration of comparison, and particularly measurement, within modern typology.