Description
Book SynopsisLanguage classification is one of the most topical and controversial areas of contemporary linguistics. This book contributes to the discussion and deals with how and why languages diversify and spread. It also demonstrates how the major language families of the world were established, and discusses the methodology of language classification.
Table of Contents1. Introduction: how are languages shown to be related to one another?; 2. The beginning of comparative linguistics; 3. 'Asiatic Jones, Oriental Jones': Sir William Jones' role in the rise of comparative linguistics; 4. Consolidation of the comparative linguistics; 5. How some languages were shown to belong to Indo-European; 6. Comparative linguistics of other languages and regions; 7. How to show languages are related: the methods; 8. The philosophical-psychological-typological-evolutionary approach to language relationships; 9. Assessment of proposed distant genetic relationships; 10. Beyond the comparative method?; 11. Why and how do languages diversify and spread?; 12. What can we learn about the earliest human language by comparing languages known today?; 13. Conclusions: anticipating the future.
