Historical Linguistics : An Introduction

by Campbell, Lyle

• ISBN13: 9780262532679
• ISBN10: 0262532670
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-11-01
• Publisher: Mit Pr

Summary

This accessible, hands-on text not only introduces students to the important topics in historical linguistics but also shows them how to apply the methods described and how to think about the issues; abundant examples and exercises allow students to focus on how to do historical linguistics. Distinctive to this text is its integration of the standard topics with others now considered important to the field, including syntactic change, grammaticalization, sociolinguistic contributions to linguistic change, distant genetic relationships, areal linguistics, and linguistic prehistory. Examples are taken from a broad range of languages; those from the more familiar English, French, German, and Spanish make the topics more accessible, while those from non-Indo-European languages show the depth and range of the concepts they illustrate. This second edition features expanded explanations and examples as well as updates in light of recent work in linguistics, including a defense of the family tree model, a response to recent claims on lexical diffusion/frequency, and a section on why languages diversify and spread.

Table of Contents

List of Tables	ix
List of Figures and Maps	xii
Preface	xiii
Acknowledgements	xvii
Phonetic Symbols and Conventions	xix
Phonetic Symbols Chart	xxi
Introduction	1	(15)
Introduction	1	(3)
What is Historical Linguistics About?	4	(2)
Kinds of Linguistic Changes: An English Example	6	(4)
Exercises	10	(6)
Sound Change	16	(46)
Introduction	16	(1)
Kinds of Sound Change	17	(2)
Non-phonemic (Allophonic) Changes	19	(1)
Phonemic Changes	20	(7)
Sporadic Changes	27	(1)
General Kinds of Sound Changes	27	(6)
Kinds of Common Sound Changes	33	(13)
Relative Chronology	46	(1)
Chain Shifts	47	(5)
Exercises	52	(10)
Borrowing	62	(41)
Introduction	62	(1)
What is a Loanword?	63	(1)
Why do Languages Borrow from One Another?	64	(1)
How do Words get Borrowed?	65	(4)
How do we Identify Loanwords and Determine the Direction of Borrowing?	69	(5)
Loans as Clues to Linguistic Changes in the Past	74	(3)
What Can Be Borrowed?	77	(5)
Cultural Inferences	82	(2)
Exercises	84	(19)
Analogical Change	103	(19)
Introduction	103	(1)
Proportional Analogy	104	(2)
Analogical Levelling	106	(2)
Analogical Extension	108	(1)
The Relationship between Analogy and Sound Change	109	(2)
Analogical Models	111	(2)
Other Kinds of Analogy	113	(7)
Exercises	120	(2)
The Comparative Method and Linguistic Reconstruction	122	(62)
Introduction	122	(3)
The Comparative Method Up Close and Personal	125	(22)
A Case Study	147	(8)
Indo-European and the Regularity of Sound Change	155	(9)
Basic Assumptions of the Comparative Method	164	(2)
How Realistic are Reconstructed Proto-languages?	166	(1)
Exercises	167	(17)
Linguistic Classification	184	(27)
Introduction	184	(1)
The World's Language Families	184	(2)
Terminology	186	(2)
How to Draw Family Trees: Subgrouping	188	(12)
Glottochronology (Lexicostatistics)	200	(10)
Exercises	210	(1)
Models of Linguistic Change	211	(14)
Introduction	211	(1)
The Family-tree Model	211	(1)
The Challenge from Dialectology and the `Wave Theory'	212	(3)
Dialectology (Linguistic Geography, Dialect Geography)	215	(3)
A Framework for Investigating the Causes of Linguistic Change	218	(1)
Sociolinguistics and Language Change	219	(3)
The Issue of Lexical Diffusion	222	(3)
Internal Reconstruction	225	(27)
Introduction	225	(1)
Internal Reconstruction Illustrated	225	(4)
Relative Chronology	229	(9)
The Limitations of Internal Reconstruction	238	(2)
Internal Reconstruction and the Comparative Method	240	(2)
Exercises	242	(10)
Semantic Change and Lexical Change	252	(31)
Introduction	252	(2)
Traditional Considerations	254	(12)
Attempts to Explain Semantic Change	266	(6)
Other Kinds of Lexical Change -- New Words	272	(8)
Exercises	280	(3)
Syntactic Change	283	(29)
Introduction	283	(1)
Mechanisms of Syntactic Change	283	(6)
Generative Approaches	289	(3)
Grammaticalization	292	(5)
Syntactic Reconstruction	297	(9)
Exercises	306	(6)
Explaining Linguistic Change	312	(18)
Introduction	312	(1)
Early Theories	313	(3)
Internal and External Causes	316	(1)
Interaction of Causal Factors	317	(9)
Explanation and Prediction	326	(4)
Areal Linguistics	330	(14)
Introduction	330	(1)
Defining the Concept	330	(1)
Examples of Linguistic Areas	331	(7)
How to Determine Linguistic Areas	338	(2)
Implications of Areal Linguistics for Linguistic Reconstruction and Subgrouping	340	(2)
Areal Linguistics and Proposals of Distant Genetic Relationship	342	(2)
Distant Genetic Relationship	344	(17)
Introduction	344	(3)
Lexical Comparison	347	(1)
Sound Correspondences	348	(2)
Grammatical Evidence	350	(2)
Borrowing	352	(1)
Semantic Constraints	353	(1)
Onomatopoeia	353	(1)
Nursery Forms	354	(1)
Short Forms and Unmatched Segments	355	(1)
Chance Similarities	355	(1)
Sound--Meaning Isomorphism	356	(1)
Only Linguistic Evidence	356	(1)
Erroneous Morphological Analysis	357	(1)
Non-cognates	357	(2)
Spurious Forms	359	(1)
Methodological Wrap-up	359	(2)
Philology: The Role of Written Records	361	(17)
Introduction	361	(1)
Philology	361	(1)
Examples of What Philology Can Contribute	362	(5)
The Role of Writing	367	(2)
Getting Historical Linguistic Information for Written Sources	369	(4)
Exercises	373	(5)
Linguistic Prehistory	378	(43)
Introduction	378	(1)
Indo-European Linguistic Prehistory	379	(14)
The Methods of Linguistic Prehistory	393	(25)
Limitations and Cautions	418	(3)
Bibliography	421	(15)
Language Index	436	(6)
Name Index	442	(2)
Subject Index	444