基本説明
Presents controversial but compelling ideas in developing a clear understanding as to why historical linguistics has had significant success in some domains, such as phonological history, and why it is considerably less successful in others.
Full Description
This book goes beyond the boundaries of a standard text, using controversial and compelling ideas to explore the relationship between fundamental concepts in historical linguistics.
An original and engaging introduction to the subject of historical linguistics
Presents controversial but compelling ideas in developing a clear understanding as to why historical linguistics has had significant success in some domains, such as phonological history, and why it is considerably less successful in others
Explores the relationship between fundamental concepts in historical linguistics, topics such as 'language' and 'change', and corresponding notions in contemporary (synchronic) linguistic theory
Features extensive discussion of traditional and theoretically-oriented historical work in the domains of phonology and syntax.
Contents
Introduction viii
Part I: "Language" and "Language Change": Preliminaries 1
1. What is "Language"? 3
2. Linguistic Artifacts: Philology 19
3. What is a "Descent" Relationship? 27
Part II: Phonological Change 49
4. Galilean-Style Phonology 51
5. The Traditional Approach 68
6. In-Depth Consideration of Selected Issues 91
7. The Regularity of Sound Change 124
Part III: Syntactic Change 147
8. What is Syntactic Change? 149
9. The Diachrony of Clitics: Phonology and Syntax 194
Part IV: Reconstruction Methodology 223
10. Reconstruction Methodology 225
Part V: Concluding Remarks 255
11. Synchronic and Diachronic Linguistics 257
References 262
Index 267
