Editing Mass comparison (section)

=== Errors in application ===
{{see also|Amerind languages|Eurasiatic languages|Indo-Pacific languages}}

The presence of frequent errors in Greenberg's data has been pointed out by linguists such as [[Lyle Campbell]] and [[Alexander Vovin]], who see it as fatally undermining Greenberg's attempt to demonstrate the reliability of mass comparison. Campbell notes in his discussion of Greenberg's [[Amerind languages|Amerind]] proposal that "nearly every specialist finds extensive distortions and inaccuracies in Greenberg's data"; for example, [[Willem Adelaar]], a specialist in Andean languages, has stated that "the number of erroneous forms [in Greenberg's data] probably exceeds that of the correct forms". Some forms in Greenberg's data even appear to be attributed to the wrong language. Greenberg also neglects known [[sound change]]s that languages have undergone; once these are taken into account, many of the resemblances he points out vanish. Greenberg's data also contains errors of a more systematic sort: for instance, he groups unrelated languages together based on outdated classifications or because they have similar names.<ref name="Campbell and Poser 2008"/><ref name="Campbell 1997">{{cite book |last=Campbell |first=Lyle |author-link=Lyle Campbell |date=1997 |title=American Indian Languages|series=Oxford Studies in Anthropological Linguistics|location=New York |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|isbn=0-19-509427-1 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Adelaar |first=Willem |author-link=Willem Adelaar|date=10 June 2004|title=The Languages of the Andes|location=Cambridge|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|series=Cambridge Language Surveys|isbn=9781139451123|pages=41–45}}</ref>

Greenberg also arbitrarily deems certain portions of a word to be [[affix]]es when affixes of the requisite [[phonological]] shape are unknown to make words cohere better with his data. Conversely, Greenberg frequently employs affixed forms in his data, failing to recognise actual morphemic boundaries; when affixes are removed, the words often no longer bear any resemblance to his "Amerind" reconstructions.<ref name="Campbell 1997"/><ref name="Heggarty 2020">{{cite book |chapter=Deep time and first settlement: What, if anything, can linguistics tell us?|last=Heggarty |first=Paul |editor-last1=Pearce|editor-first1=Adrian J.|editor-last2=Beresford-Jones|editor-first2=David G.|editor-last3=Heggarty|editor-first3=Paul|date=21 October 2020|title=Rethinking the Andes–Amazonia Divide: A cross-disciplinary exploration|location=London|publisher=UCL Press|isbn=9781787357358}}</ref> Greenberg has responded to this criticism by claiming that "the method of multilateral comparison is so powerful that it will give reliable results even with the poorest data. Incorrect material should merely have a randomizing effect”. This has hardly reassured critics of the method, who are far from convincing of the method's "power".<ref name="Heggarty 2020"/>