arne rubehn

Hi! I am a computational linguist, currently pursuing my PhD at the Chair of Multilingual Computational Linguistics at the University of Passau. I focus on computer-assisted, data-driven methods for historical linguistics with the goal of advancing comparative historical linguistics by the means of intelligent algorithmic methods, alleviating researchers’ workload by processing large-scale data efficiently. I currently persue methods for modelling phonetic and semantic properties of basic vocabulary in an embedded space.
I have studied Computational Linguistics, General Linguistics, and Latin at the University of Tübingen. Within my MA thesis project I have trained a neural network that estimates global probabilities for arbitrary sound changes. Additionally, I have years of working experience as a software developer for EtInEn (Etymological Inference Engine), a software for historical linguists that is being developed at the Linguistic Department in Tübingen.
research interests
My research usually concerns the computational modelling of linguistic questions, especially within the domains of:
- historical linguistics
- phonetics and phonology
- lexical semantics and word formation
- typology
Instead of focusing on individual languages or families, I aim at developing “generalist” models and methods in the light of large-scale, cross-linguistic applications.
news
May 07, 2025 | Upcoming talk: Improving Digitization Efforts in Comparative Linguistics. Workshop “Linguistic data and language comparison in light of the quantitative turn and big data”, University of Bern, Switzerland. |
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Mar 13, 2025 | Talk held: Concept Embeddings: Applying graph embedding techniques to colexification networks. Workshop “Bridging the Gap: Unifying approaches to linguistic evolution”, University of Zurich, Switzerland. |
Mar 05, 2025 | New preprints: Annotating and Inferring Compositional Structures Across Languages (with Christoph Rzymski, Luca Ciucci, Kellen Parker van Dam, Alžběta Kučerová, Katja Bocklage, David Snee, Abishek Stephen, and Johann-Mattis List; arXiv:2503.01625) & Unstable Grounds for Beautiful Trees? Testing the Robustness of Concept Translations in the Compilation of Multilingual Wordlists (with David Snee, Luca Ciucci, Kellen Parker van Dam, and Johann-Mattis List; arXiv:2503.00464). |