Description
Book SynopsisPresents an account of the numerous issues that characterize the work in historical linguistics, the area of linguistics directly concerned with language change and language states. This title contains an introduction that places the study of historical linguistics in its proper context within linguistics and the historical sciences in general.
Trade Review"
The Handbook of Historical Linguistics proves an atypical handbook in several positive senses, beginning with the introduction's bold tackling of foundational issues. While many chapters offer the expected compact overviews of familiar topics, others are, we hope, destined to become influential as needed lucid statements on particular issues... and thought-provoking, original contributions... The value of
The Handbook of Historical Linguistics is multifaceted; its influence will be far-reaching and long-lasting."
Journal of Linguistics “The editors have assembled a remarkable array of contributors who can introduce readers to the professional standards of scholarship and scientific reasoning that characterize the field.” William Labov, University of Pennsylvania
“An authoritative collection, by a stellar group of contributors, that presents historical linguistics as it really is – a multifaceted study that is both a branch of general linguistics and a field in its own right. No other survey covers the territory half so well.” Jay Jasanoff, Harvard University
Table of ContentsList of Contributors ix
Preface xi
Part I Introduction 1
On Language, Change, and Language Change – Or, Of History, Linguistics, and Historical Linguistics 3
Richard D. Janda and Brian D. Joseph
Part II Methods for Studying Language Change 181
1 The Comparative Method 183
Robert L. Rankin
2 On the Limits of the Comparative Method 213
S. P. Harrison
3 Internal Reconstruction 244
Don Ringe
4 How to Show Languages are Related: Methods for Distant Genetic Relationship 262
Lyle Campbell
5 Diversity and Stability in Language 283
Johanna Nichols
Part III Phonological Change 311
6 The Phonological Basis of Sound Change 313
Paul Kiparsky
7 Neogrammarian Sound Change 343
Mark Hale
8 Variationist Approaches to Phonological Change 369
Gregory R. Guy
9 “Phonologization” as the Start of Dephoneticization – Or, On Sound Change and its Aftermath: Of Extension, Generalization, Lexicalization, and Morphologization 401
Richard D. Janda
Part IV Morphological and Lexical Change 423
10 Analogy: The Warp and Woof of Cognition 425
Raimo Anttila
11 Analogical Change 441
Hans Henrich Hock
12 Naturalness and Morphological Change 461
Wolfgang U. Dressler
13 Morphologization from Syntax 472
Brian D. Joseph
Part V Syntactic Change 493
14 Grammatical Approaches to Syntactic Change 495
David Lightfoot
15 Variationist Approaches to Syntactic Change 509
Susan Pintzuk
16 Cross-Linguistic Perspectives on Syntactic Change 529
Alice C. Harris
17 Functional Perspectives on Syntactic Change 552
Marianne Mithun
Part Vi Pragmatico-semantic Change 573
18 Grammaticalization 575
Bernd Heine
19 Mechanisms of Change in Grammaticization: The Role of Frequency 602
Joan Bybee
20 Constructions in Grammaticalization 624
Elizabeth Closs Traugott
21 An Approach to Semantic Change 648
Benjamin W. Fortson iv
Part VII Explaining Linguistic Change 667
22 Phonetics and Historical Phonology 669
John J. Ohala
23 Contact as a Source of Language Change 687
Sarah Grey Thomason
24 Dialectology and Linguistic Diffusion 713
Walt Wolfram and Natalie Schilling-Estes
25 Psycholinguistic Perspectives on Language Change 736
Jean Aitchison
Bibliography 744
Subject Index 843
Name Index 856
Language Index 879
