Historical linguistics
Subtitle: toward a twenty-first century reintegration
By: Don Ringe and Joseph F. Eska
Contributors: Eska, Joseph F.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2012
Place of publication: Cambridge, [England]; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 313
ISBN-13: 9780521583329
Subjects: Historical linguistics; Language and languages; Linguistic change; Variation; LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / General
Description: "Bringing the advances of theoretical linguistics to the study of language change, this innovative textbook demonstrates the mutual relevance of historical linguistics and contemporary linguistics. Numerous case studies throughout the book show both that theoretical linguistics can be used to solve problems where traditional approaches to historical linguistics have failed to produce satisfying results, and that the results of historical research can have an impact on theory. The book first explains the nature of human language and the sources of language change in broad terms. It then focuses on different types of language change from contemporary viewpoints, before exploring comparative reconstruction and the problems inherent in trying to devise new methods for linguistic comparison. Positioned at the cutting edge of the field, the book argues that this approach can and should lead to the re-integration of historical linguistics as one of the core areas in the study of language"--

"Bringing the advances of theoretical linguistics to the study of language change in a systematic way, this innovative textbook demonstrates the mutual relevance of historical linguistics and contemporary linguistics. Numerous case studies throughout the book show both that theoretical linguistics can be used to solve problems where traditional approaches to historical linguistics have failed to produce satisfying results, and that the results of historical research can have an impact on theory. The book first explains the nature of human language and the sources of language change in broad terms. It then focuses on different types of language change from contemporary viewpoints, before exploring comparative reconstruction - the most spectacular success of traditional historical linguistics - and the problems inherent in trying to devise new methods for linguistic comparison. Positioned at the cutting edge of the field, the book argues that this approach can and should lead to the reintegration of historical linguistics as one of the core areas in the study of language"--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Machine generated contents note: Introduction; 1. The nature of human language and language variation; 2. Language replication and language change; 3. Language change in the speech community; 4. Language contact as a source of change; 5. Sound change; 6. The evolution of phonological rules; 7. Morphology; 8. Morphological change; 9. Syntactic change; 10. Reconstruction; 11. Beyond comparative reconstruction: subgrouping and 'long-distance' relationships; Appendix: recovering the pronunciation of dead languages: types of evidence.