The handbook of historical linguistics
By: edited by Brian D. Joseph and Richard D. Janda.
Contributors: Joseph, Brian D.; Janda, Richard D.
Series: Blackwell handbooks in linguistics
Publisher: Blackwell Pub.
Published: 2005
Place of publication: Malden, MA
Language: eng
Number of pages: 881
ISBN-13: 9781405127479
Subjects: Historical linguistics
Description: "This well-conceived and lucidly written Handbook provides a detailed account of the numerous issues, methods, and results that characterize current work in historical linguistics, the area of linguistics most directly concerned with language change as well as past language states." "An extensive and comprehensive introduction by the editors places the study of historical linguistics in its proper context, both within the field of linguistics itself and within the historical sciences more generally. The 25 chapters, written by leading specialists in the field, cover the most important methods of historical linguistics, including comparative reconstruction and internal reconstruction, reliable ways of determining language relatedness, and contemporary approaches to dialectological investigation." "The volume also presents sophisticated overviews of the principles that emerge from the in-depth study of phonological, morphological, syntactic, and semantic change, including grammaticalization, and offers wide-ranging explorations of the major factors at work in the causation of change. Supplemented with an extensive bibliography and detailed indexes, this is an indispensable resource for anyone with an interest in history and/or language. Book jacket."--BOOK JACKET
Notes: First published in paperback in 2005.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [744]-842) and indexes.
Table of contents: title: On language, change, and language change - or, of history, linguistics, and historical linguistics -- Richard D. Janda, Brian D. Joseph; title: Comparative method -- Robert L. Rankin; title: On the limits of the comparative method -- S.P. Harrison; title: Internal reconstruction -- Don Ringe; title: How to show languages are related : methods for distant genetic relationship -- Lyle Campbell; title: Diversity and stability in language -- Johanna Nichols; title: Phonological basis of sound change -- Paul Kiparsky; title: Neogrammarian sound change -- Mark Hale.; title: Variationist approaches to phonological change -- Gregory R. Guy; title: "Phonologization" as the start of dephoneticization - or, on sound change and its aftermath : of extension, generalization, lexicalization, and morphologization -- Richard D. Janda; title: Analogy : the warp and woof of cognition -- Raimo Anttila; title: Analogical change -- Hans Henrich Hock; title: Naturalness and morphological change -- Wolfgang U. Dressler; title: Morphologization from Syntax -- Brian D. Joseph; title: Grammatical approaches to syntactic change -- David Lightfoot.; title: Variationist approaches to syntactic change -- Susan Pintzuk; title: Cross-linguistic perspectives on syntactic change -- Alice C. Harris; title: Functional perspectives on syntactic change -- Marianne Mithun; title: Grammaticalization -- Bernd Heine; title: Mechanisms of change in grammaticization : the role of frequency -- Joan Bybee; title: Contructions in grammaticalization -- Elizabeth Closs Traugott; title: Approach to semantic change -- Benjamin W. Fortson IV; title: Phonetics and historical phonology -- John J. Ohala; title: Contact as a source of language change -- Sarah Grey Thomason.; title: Dialectology and linguistic diffusion -- Walt Wolfram, Natalie Schilling-Estes; title: Psycholinguistic perspectives on language change -- Jean Aitchison.