paraphyletic groups proposed in the literature, and provides the corresponding monophyletic taxa. Linguistics The concept of paraphyly has also been applied to historical linguistics, where the methods of cladistics have found some utility in comparing languages. For instance, the Formosan languages form a paraphyletic group of the Austronesian languages because they consist of the nine branches of the Austronesian family that are not Malayo-Polynesian and are restricted to the island of Taiwan. See also Glossary of scientific naming Notes References Bibliography Paraphyletic groups as natural units of biological classification External links Phylogenetics Paraphyletic groups