25.4903, Review: Historical Linguistics: Luraghi, Luraghi (eds.) (2013)

The LINGUIST List via LINGUIST linguist at listserv.linguistlist.org
Thu Dec 4 20:08:41 UTC 2014


LINGUIST List: Vol-25-4903. Thu Dec 04 2014. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 25.4903, Review: Historical Linguistics: Luraghi, Luraghi (eds.) (2013)

Moderators: Damir Cavar, Indiana U <damir at linguistlist.org>
            Malgorzata E. Cavar, Indiana U <gosia at linguistlist.org>

Reviews: reviews at linguistlist.org
Anthony Aristar <aristar at linguistlist.org>
Helen Aristar-Dry <hdry at linguistlist.org>
Sara Couture, Indiana U <sara at linguistlist.org>

Homepage: http://linguistlist.org

Do you want to donate to LINGUIST without spending an extra penny? Bookmark
the Amazon link for your country below; then use it whenever you buy from
Amazon!

USA: http://www.amazon.com/?_encoding=UTF8&tag=linguistlist-20
Britain: http://www.amazon.co.uk/?_encoding=UTF8&tag=linguistlist-21
Germany: http://www.amazon.de/?_encoding=UTF8&tag=linguistlistd-21
Japan: http://www.amazon.co.jp/?_encoding=UTF8&tag=linguistlist-22
Canada: http://www.amazon.ca/?_encoding=UTF8&tag=linguistlistc-20
France: http://www.amazon.fr/?_encoding=UTF8&tag=linguistlistf-21

For more information on the LINGUIST Amazon store please visit our
FAQ at http://linguistlist.org/amazon-faq.cfm.

Editor for this issue: Sara  Couture <sara at linguistlist.org>
================================================================

Visit LL's Multitree project for over 1000 trees dynamically generated
from scholarly hypotheses about language relationships:
          http://multitree.linguistlist.org/
					
					

Date: Thu, 04 Dec 2014 15:07:47
From: Dibella Wdzenczny [wdzencz at gmail.com]
Subject: The Bloomsbury Companion to Historical Linguistics

E-mail this message to a friend:
http://linguistlist.org/issues/emailmessage/verification.cfm?iss=25-4903.html&submissionid=31677357&topicid=9&msgnumber=1
 
Discuss this message: 
http://linguistlist.org/pubs/reviews/get-review.cfm?subid=31677357


Book announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/24/24-2825.html

EDITOR: Silvia  Luraghi
EDITOR: Vit  Luraghi
TITLE: The Bloomsbury Companion to Historical Linguistics
SERIES TITLE: Bloomsbury Companions
PUBLISHER: Bloomsbury Publishing (formerly The Continuum International Publishing Group)
YEAR: 2013

REVIEWER: Dibella Wdzenczny, University of California, Santa Barbara

Review's Editor: Anthony Aristar

SUMMARY

“The Bloomsbury Companion to Historical Linguistics” is an edited collection
of papers that address aspects and extensions of the subfield of historical
linguistics, similar to  Joseph and Janda's (2003) “Handbook of Historical
Linguistics”. The volume also deals with advances in the field within the last
ten years since the handbook appeared. The book is intended to provide
up-to-date coverage of both the fundamentals (such as the comparative method)
and more modern approaches (such as computational methodologies) within
historical linguistics. Each chapter begins with an outline overview and quick
topic reference. The authors are both up-and-coming scholars as well as
seasoned historical linguists, and they present a varied range of perspectives
on the discipline.

The book begins with an introduction by the editors, “Historical Linguistics:
History, Sources and Resources.” This chapter gives an excellent overview of
the field throughout history, from the very first inklings that Indo-European
languages might have come from a single, older source to modern generative
approaches to historical questions. Also included are descriptions of the
history of the study of writing systems, variation, and language contact.
Concluding the chapter is a list of available historical corpus resources
sorted by language or language family, with publication and website
information where available.

The first subsection, Methodology, includes the chapters “Sound Change and the
Comparative Method: The Science of Historical Reconstruction” by John Hewson,
“Internal Reconstruction” by Brian D. Joseph, “Typology and Universals” by
Hans Heinrich Hock, and “Internal Language Classification” by Søren Wichmann.
These chapters review the history of specific aspects of historical
linguistics very thoroughly, situating them in the field both methodologically
and theoretically. The comparative method is described with respect to its
scientific nature and viability, and in several chapters, aspects of
computational possibilities in historical linguistics are mentioned, along
with a number of important caveats.

The second subsection, Phonological Change, contains the chapters “Segmental
Phonological Change” by Joseph Salmons and “Suprasegmental and Prosodic
Historical Phonology” by Hans Heinrich Hock. Both chapters explore in great
detail hypotheses on the motivation for sound change in their respective areas
of phonology, especially with regards to the broader systematicity of
historical phonology versus the details of phonetics/phonemics, such as
processes of assimilation, the idea of sound change motivated by ease of
articulation, syllable preference laws, and the elimination of features as
well as segments. Both chapters also include a plethora of examples of
theories of sound change, as well as several counterexamples. These chapters
crucially evaluate and compare the relative strengths of different different
typological hypotheses and explanatory value when situated in historical
versus synchronic phonology. One is Kiparsky’s (2008) coda neutralization to
an unmarked value: onsets must contrast in at least as many ways as codas, and
when codas are neutralized through sound change, they will always do so to the
unmarked value; Salmons shows that this is not the case in several languages.

The third subsection, Morphological and Grammatical Change, includes the
chapters “From Morphologization to Demorphologization” by Henning Andersen,
“Analogic Change” by Livio Gaeta, and “Change in Grammatical Categories” by
Vit Bubenik. In these chapters, one can find extensive lists of examples and
descriptions of virtually every process of morphological change. Whereas
Andersen leaves open the question of where these types of change come from,
suggesting that this issue is to be understood on a case-by-case basis, Gaeta
and Bubenik both address the larger question of what may drive mechanisms of
change; Gaeta specifically targets different results of analogic change that
emerge from the pressure to conform to various paradigmatic patterns, and
Bubenik describes in-depth several types of change within Afro-Asiatic and
Semitic as a case study.

The fourth subsection, Syntactic Change, contains the chapters “Word Order” by
Jan Terje Faarlund, “The Rise (and Possible Downfall) of Configurationality”
by Silvia Luraghi, “Subordination” by Dorothy Disterheft and Carlotta Viti,
and “Alignment” by Geoffrey Haig. These chapters discuss issues of syntactic
change and configuration in both generative and discourse-functional
approaches. Faarlund couches word order change in terms of generative deep
structure change, but returns to a more functionalist view in the
grammaticalization of discourse as the emergence of topicalization. Luraghi
examines non-configurationality in Indo-European from a usage-based approach,
which is a welcome addition to a topic typically only addressed in generative
linguistics and LFG. Haig uses Persian as a case study to illustrate the
alignment shift to ergativity in Iranian languages.

The fifth subsection, Semantico-Pragmatic Change, includes the chapters
“Grammaticalization “by Elizabeth Traugott, “Semantic Change” by Eugenio R.
Luján, and “Etymology” by Thomas Krisch. Traugott’s chapter provides very
detailed background on grammaticalization, internal divisions within the
theory, examples of proposed facets of grammaticalization, and insights from
other theories. Luján’s chapter covers the basic types of semantic change, its
effects and results in different systems, and most interestingly, semantic
change beyond the word. Krisch’s chapter gives several detailed examples of
etymological investigation, such as the name for the god ‘Poseidon’, and the
word for ‘god’, approaching the examination from all possible directions. This
exemplifies just how complex etymology can be. 

The sixth subsection, Explanations of Language Change, contains the chapters
“Language Contact” by Bridget Drinka, “Regional and Social Dialectology” by
J.K. Chambers, and “Causes of Language Change” by Silvia Luraghi. Drinka’s
chapter explores advances in language contact since the seminal volume by
Thomason and Kaufman (1988), while still reiterating the necessary caveats
concerning the unpredictability of language contact situations. For example,
Drinka emphasizes that the most striking and important claims about language
contact is that it is social factors that drive change (rather than internal,
formal ones), but also that these social factors are not always predictive nor
do they always head in the direction of linguistic simplification. Chamber’s
chapter discusses the variationist approach to language change, as seen
through the nuanced lens of dialectology and quantitative sociolinguistics.
Luraghi’s chapter reframes all of the previously discussed types of historical
change through linguistic theories of cognition, discourse, and
socio-functional usage, and asks, finally, if there are indeed purely internal
factors for change and if a language can change separate from the people who
actively speak it.

Finally, the book includes compiled references, a helpful index of languages,
and, a section titled “A-Z Historical Linguistics”, which contains nearly all
terminology pertinent or specific to historical linguistics. The contributors
were responsible for including and defining terms especially as they were used
within the text, and the editors were tasked with unifying them.

EVALUATION

Overall, this edited volume is a generally well-written collection of papers
on various aspects of historical linguistics. It covers all aspects of
historical linguistics, including cutting-edge new material that has more
recently been introduced into the field. While separate handbooks exist on
particular topics (grammaticalization, historical phonology) discussed in this
volume (Narrog and Heine 2011; Honeybone and Salmons 2014), the book presents
nuanced and detailed information on each of these. thus giving a greater
insight into them from a more general perspective.

The best chapters in the book are those that discuss the limitations of
particular approaches as well as their history and successes. For example, the
chapters by Joseph, Salmons, both of Hock, and Traugott chapters are very
careful to mention the caveats (both well-known and less-known) to internal
reconstruction, phonological explanations for change, and grammaticalization,
respectively. Not only does this discussion add to the intellectual value of
the book, but it also makes it less likely for less experienced readers to
fall into theoretical traps in their own work. Critique is an important but
often overlooked part of any survey of methodology in any subfield;
unfortunately, not all chapters that should include such evaluation have it.
In particular, the two chapters where computational approaches are introduced
(Hewson’s and Wichmann’s) suffer from an overload of examples but a lack of
sufficient explanation of the limitations of these methods. Criticisms of
computational methods may have been assumed by these writers, but this is not
good practice for a general survey volume especially if there is not a
specific chapter dedicated to doing so (cf. Joseph’s chapter in Narrog & Heine
(2011)). On the positive side, however, the new methodologies presented in
Hewson’s chapter may give hope to historical linguists who are still looking
for a reliable computational analog to the standard comparative method,
despite the vast amounts of digitization that this approach would entail.

Wichmann’s chapter presents a useful outline of different approaches to
subgrouping and calculating genetic distance, as well as computational
representations of more blended (non-dendrogram) models. These models are
becoming more popular, especially with linguists who work with language
families that exhibit significant lateral transmission. However, on pg. 72
Wichmann makes a statement about other competing diagnostics for genetic
relationship that have been put forth, including “random searches for any
possible cognates within a large group of languages (Greenberg 1987)...”,
following it with “It is not clear which sort of method works best,” and
“[n]one of them, not even some combination, could deliver the sort of proof
for a genealogical relation that would satisfy any historical linguist.” It is
surprising that at this stage of development of the field, random mass
comparisons would be put on a par with the comparative method for establishing
genetic relationships, especially when “random searches” seem to be considered
equivalent with tested and significantly more vetted methods such as the
“fixed vocabulary [Swadesh] list”, “and similar shaped pronominals (Nichols
1996)”. It is disappointing that the chapter relies heavily on explaining
lexicostatistics and binary perceived similarity rather than including more
recent computational work on exploring subgrouping, such as computational
comparison of kinship systems among subgroups, loanword rates, or numeral
systems. While it is valuable to explain how these computational methods work,
the results would seem to be more important.

The syntax section lacks a more integrated discussion of different theoretical
approaches to syntactic change. While the syntactic change section includes
both generative and functional approaches and explanations, they are divided
by chapter. Faarlund’s chapter on word order leans significantly toward
explanation rooted in discourse function, whereas Luraghi’s chapter on
configurationality relies heavily upon generative theories and terminology.
Ideally, both of these chapters would have included the other perspective:
syntactic change in word order necessarily needs to be addressed in generative
grammar (in order for it to be truly universal), and discourse function is an
extremely important factor in change in non-configurational languages. While
space is of course limited, each chapter would have been enhanced by an
expansion of its theoretical perspective.

On a more editorial note, a few typographical issues disturbed the readability
of the book. There were an unfortunate number of typographical errors,
including in the headers of sections within the text. Moreover, the layout of
some examples within particular chapters (e.g., Table 8.8, pg. 139), was
extremely difficult to read and make sense of. There was also an abundance of
Indo-European-specific terminology, such as “Cicero’s modus dicendi” (pg.
245), that were only cursorily explained. While “symplesiomorphies” may be an
etymologically precise term that is used by biologists, “shared retention” is
not only more common but significantly more transparent to the reader. 

I would recommend this book for a general linguistics library, especially for
students who may wish to read in more detail about a particular aspect of
historical linguistics and work through the references from there. While the
volume presents different data and examples than those found in Joseph & Janda
(2003), much of the material is ultimately the same, and is more affordable
than the earlier volume. The book has a few shortcomings with regard to depth,
but it is noteworthy that many chapters include theoretically current
discussions and references. The book is ultimately a detailed, interesting
read for those looking for a broad overview of current theoretical trends in
historical linguistics.

REFERENCES

Greenberg, Joseph H.. 1987. Language in the Americas. Stanford: Stanford
University Press.
Honeybone, Patrick and Joseph Salmons. 2014. The Oxford Handbook of Historical
Phonology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Joseph, Brian D. 2011. ‘Grammaticalization: A general critique.’ in Narrog and
Heine (eds.). pp. 193-208. 

Joseph, Brian D. and Richard D. Janda (eds.). 2003. The Handbook of Historical
Linguistics. Oxford: Blackwell.

Narrog, Heiko and Bernd Heine (eds.). 2011. The Oxford Handbook of
Grammaticalization. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Nichols, Johanna. 1996. ‘The comparative method as a heuristic,’ in M. Durie
and M. Ross (eds.), The Comparative Method Reviewed: Regularity and
Irregularity in Language Change. pp. 39-71. Oxford: Oxford University Press.


ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Dibella Wdzenczny is a PhD student at the University of California, Santa
Barbara. Her primary interests are in historical linguistics, linguistic
prehistory, language documentation, and morphosyntax (especially case
systems). Her areal focus is on the indigenous languages of eastern Siberia;
her current fieldwork is based in the Kamchatka peninsula.








----------------------------------------------------------
LINGUIST List: Vol-25-4903	
----------------------------------------------------------
Visit LL's Multitree project for over 1000 trees dynamically generated
from scholarly hypotheses about language relationships:
          http://multitree.linguistlist.org/
					
					






More information about the LINGUIST mailing list