Linguistic Reconstruction: An Introduction to Theory and Method (Oxford Textbooks in Linguistics)

✍ Scribed by Anthony Fox

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Year: 1995
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 487
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

How and why are languages constantly changing? Historical lingustics seeks to find out by going beyond the history of individual languages to discover the general principles which underlie language change. But our evidence is severely limited. Most of the world's languages are still unwritten, and even in areas with long written traditions, such as Europe and the Near East, documentary evidence stretches only a little way back along the path of the historical development of languages. How, then, can we uncover our long linguistic prehistory, and what can it tell us about language change? This new textbook is an accessible general guide for students with an elementary knowledge of linguistics to the methods and theoretical bases of linguistic reconstruction, and of newer, less well established principles such as the application of linguistic universals and language typology, and quantitative techniques. Finally he reviews the principles for establishing language relationships and for uncovering information about the homelands and cultures of the prehistoric speakers of reconstructed languages.

✦ Table of Contents

FRONT-MATTERS
Cover
Half-Title
Title
Copyright
Preface
Acknowledgements
Contents
List of Figures
A Note on Transcription and Transliteration
LINGUISTIC RECONSTRUCTION: AN INTRODUCTION TO THEORY AND METHOD
1. Introduction
1. 1. Why Reconstruction?
1.2. The Methods of Reconstruction
1.3. The Status and Limitations of Reconstructions
Notes
Further Reading
2. Background to the Comparative Method
2.1. The Significance of the Comparative Method
2.2. The Origins of the Comparative Method
2.3. The Development of the Comparative Method int he Nineteenth Century
2.4. The Nineteenth Century: Conclusions
NOTES
FURTHER READING
3. The Comparative Method in the Twentieth Century
3.1.Introduction
3.2. Structuralist Linguistics and Language
3.3. The Comparative Method and Generative Grammar
3.4. The Twentieth Century: Further Developments
NOTES
FURTHER READING
4.The Comparative Method: basic procedures
4. 1. Introduction
4.2. Stages of Reconstruction 58
4.3. Setting up the Correspondences
4.4. Establishing the Proto-Phonemes
4.5. Assigning Phonetic Values
4.6. Conclusion 87
NOTES
FURTHER READING
5. Comparative Reconstruction of Morphology, Syntax, and the Lexicon
5.1. Introduction
5.2. Comparative Reconstruction of Morphology
5.3. Comparative Reconstruction of Syntax
5.4. Reconstruction and the Lexicon
NOTES
FURTHER READING
6. Issues in Comparative Reconstruction
6.1. Introduction
6.2. The Tree Model
6.3. The Wave Model
6.4. The Uniformity of the Proto-Language
6.5. The Regularity Principle 136
6.6. The Comparative Method: Evaluation 137
NOTES
FURTHER READING
7. Internal Reconstruction
7. 1. Introduction: the origin of the method
7.2. The Basis of the Method
7.3. Formalizing the Method: Stages of Reconstruction
7.4. Setting up the Correspondences
7.5. Establishing the Pre-Phonemes 155
7.6. Assigning Phonetic Values 165
7.7. Reconstructing Systems and Structures
NOTES
FURTHER READING
8. Applications and Implications of Internal Reconstruction
8. 1. Internal Reconstruction of Morphology
8.2. Internal Reconstruction of Syntax
8.3. 'Laws' of Language Development 194
8.4. Internal Reconstruction, Generative Phonology, and Relative Chronology 206
8.5. Internal Reconstruction and the Comparative Method 210
9. Reconstructing Language Relationships
9.1. Introduction
9.2. Criteria for Subgrouping 218
9.3. Trees and Language Relationships 224
9.4. Mass Comparison 236
NOTES
FURTHER READING
10. Language Typology and Linguistic Reconstruction
10.1 The Typological Classification of Languages
10.2. Language Typology, Language Change, and Reconstruction
10.3. Typology and Phonological Reconstruction
10.4. Typology and Syntactic Reconstruction
NOTES
FURTHER READING
11. Quantitative Methods in Reconstruction
11.1 Introduction: The Use of Quantitative Methods
11.2. The Probabilities of Language Relationships
11.3. Lexicostatistics and Glottochronology
11.4. Quantitative Methods and Typology
NOTES
FURTHER READING
12. Reconstruction, Culture, and Society
12.1. Introduction
12.2. Evidence for Cultural Context
12.3 Prehistoric Homelands
I2.4. Reconstructing Culture
NOTES
FURTHER READING
BACK-MATTERS
References
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
R
S
T
U
V
W
Z
General Index
Language Index
Name Index
Back-Cover