In modern linguistics, the wave model has contributed greatly to improve, but not supersede, the tree model approach of the comparative method.[3] Some scholars have even proposed that the wave model does not complement the tree model but should replace it for the representation of language genealogy.[1] The recent works have also focused on the notion of a linkage,[4] a family of languages descended from a former dialect continuum: Linkages cannot be represented by trees and must be analysed by the wave model.