| Description |
vi, 321 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm |
| Contents |
1. Introduction / Malcolm Ross and Mark Durie -- 2. The Comparative Method as Heuristic / Johanna Nichols -- 3. On Sound Change and Challenges to Regularity /Lyle Campbell -- 4. Footnotes to a History of Cantonese: Accounting for the Phonological Irregularities / John Newman -- 5. Early Germanic Umlaut and Variable Rules / Mark Durie -- 6. The Neogrammarian Hypothesis and Pandemic Irregularity /Robert Blust -- 7. Regularity of Change in What? /George Grace -- 8. Contact-Induced Change and the Comparative Method: Cases from Papua New Guinea /Malcolm Ross -- 9. Reconstruction in Morphology /Harold Koch -- 10. Natural Tendencies of Semantic Change and the Search for Cognates / David Wilkins |
| Summary |
Historical reconstruction of languages relies on the comparative method, which itself depends on the notion of the regularity of change. The regularity of sound change is the famous Neogrammarian Hypothesis: "sound change takes place according to laws that admit no exception." The comparative method, however, is not restricted to the consideration of sound change, and neither is the assumption of regularity. Syntactic, morphological, and semantic change are all amenable in varying degrees to comparative reconstruction, and each type of change is constrained in ways that enable the researcher to distinguish between regular and more irregular changes |
|
This volume draws together studies by scholars engaged in historical reconstruction, all focussing on the subject of regularity and irregularity in the comparative method. A wide range of languages is represented, with detailed discussion of data from Australia, Papua New Guinea, Austronesia, North and Central America, East Asia, and Europe |
| Analysis |
Comparative linguistics |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 301-304) and indexes |
| Subject |
Comparative linguistics.
|
|
Linguistic change.
|
| Author |
Durie, Mark, 1958-
|
|
Ross, Malcolm.
|
| LC no. |
94040954 |
| ISBN |
0195066073 |
|
