The Use of Language Data in Comparative Research: A Note on Blust (2008) and Onvlee (1984)

This squib corrects and explain errors in the representation, interpretation, and analysis of Kambera data used in Blust (2008). By highlighting the problems with the Kambera data, some pitfalls in the comparativist's task of using others’ descriptions of primary data are identified. The primary source of Blust's Kambera lexical data is Onvlee (1984), a dictionary containing about 6,000 entries. Some background information about this source is given in order to evaluate its usefulness for comparative research. More generally, this squib stresses the crucial importance of including detailed metadata in synchronic linguistic descriptions of primary data, as well as in comparative studies.