Subgrouping

This chapter gives an overview of subgrouping within the comparative method with a focus on several successes within the Malayo‐Polynesian subgroup of the Austronesian family, contrasting successes which crucially rely on innovative phonological and morphological change with a controversial subgroup that is adduced purely through putative lexical innovations. A further comparison to subgrouping approaches rooted solely in shared cognacy rather than linguistic innovation shows that they merely recapitulate well‐known contact relations rather than uncovering ancient phylogenies.