Tracking linguistic features underlying lexical variation patterns: A case study on Tuscan dialects

In this paper, we illustrate the application of hierarchical spectral partitioning of bipartite graphs in the study of lexical variation in Tuscany based on the data from a regional linguistic atlas. This method makes it possible not only to identify existing patterns of lexical variation in Tuscany, but also to uncover the underlying lexical features in terms of the most characteristic concept-lexicalization pairs. The results are promising, demonstrating the potential of the method for tracking the linguistic features underlying identified patterns of lexical variation and change across generations.