The Handbook of Historical Linguistics / Edition 1

by Brian Joseph, Richard Janda

Overview

The Handbook of Historical Linguistics 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.

• Contains an extensive introduction that places the study of historical linguistics in its proper context within linguistics and the historical sciences in general
  
• Covers the methodology of historical linguistics and presents sophisticated overviews of the principles governing phonological, morphological, syntactic, and semantic change
  
• Includes contributions from the leading specialists in the field

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781405127479
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	01/14/2005
Series:	Blackwell Handbooks in Linguistics , #35
Pages:	904
Product dimensions:	6.78(w) x 9.75(h) x 1.93(d)

About the Author

Brian D. Joseph is Professor of Linguistics and Kenneth E. Naylor Professor of South Slavic Linguistics at The Ohio State University. Within historical linguistics, his research focuses mainly on Indo-European languages. He has written and edited numerous books – including Language History, Language Change, and Language Relationship (with Hans H. Hock, 1996) and The Synchrony and Diachrony of the Balkan Infinitive (1983) – and has published over 160 articles. He became editor of the journal Language in 2002.

Richard D. Janda is Senior Lecturer and Coordinator for Undergraduate Education in the Department of Linguistics at The Ohio State University. A specialist in both Germanic and Romance linguistics, he has written widely not only on diachronic but also on synchronic issues in phonology, morphology, and morphosyntax, as well as on historical linguistics in general. His more than 70 publications focus on drawing broader implications from the application of theory to specific problems of structure, function, variation, and change in individual languages.

Table of Contents

List 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

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"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

"This volume restores the field of general historical linguistics to its rightful place as an equal partner to synchronic 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

Editorial Reviews

"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

"This volume restores the field of general historical linguistics to its rightful place as an equal partner to synchronic 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

From the Publisher