New Books in Historical linguistics

[Paul Peranteau]

----------------------------Original message----------------------------
John Benjamins Publishing announces the availability of these two titles:

Historical Linguistics 1995.
Volume 2: Germanic linguistics.
Selected papers from the 12th International Conference on Historical
Linguistics, Manchester, August 1995.
Richard M. HOGG and Linda van BERGEN (University of Manchester) (eds.)
Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 162
US & Canada: 1 55619 878 7 / USD 79.00 (Hardcover)
Rest of world: 90 272 3667 4 / NLG 158.00 (Hardcover)
The Twelfth International Conference on Historical Linguistics, which is
the major forum for the presentation of work in progress in the field of
diachronic linguistics, took place at the University of Manchester in
August 1995. The quality and breadth of the abstracts submitted for the
general programme was such that four parallel sessions were needed
throughout the conference. The present volume contains selected papers
which deal with the Germanic languages. A companion volume contains papers
on general problems in historical linguistics and studies of non-Germanic
languages. The conference reflected the current health of diachronic
linguistics. There were more papers and more participants than at past
conferences, and the discussion covered a broader range of languages than
hitherto.
Sometimes it has been possible to isolate a particular preoccupation which
has dominated much of the conference; but the overall impression to be
gained from the Manchester meeting was one of stimulating diversity - the
discipline appears to be moving forward on many fronts simultaneously, yet
without losing focus. This stimulating diversity is well reflected in this
important collection.
Contributions by: Joyce Tang Boyland; Kate Burridge; Carol Chapman;
Young-mee Yu Cho; Xavier Dekeyser; Martin Ehala; Kimberley Farrar; Jack
Hoeksema; John Hutton; Dieter Kastovsky; Merja Kytö and Atro Voutilainen;
Arjan van Leuvensteijn; Sharon Millar; Terttu Nevalainen and Helena
Raumolin-Brunberg; Muriel Norde; Betty S. Phillips; Susan Pintzuk; Renate
Raffelsiefen; Edith H. Raidt; Elke Ronneberger-Sibold; Beatrice Warren;
Ton van der Wouden; Wolfgang Ullrich Wurzel.

A Historical Syntax of Late Middle Indo-Aryan (Apabhramsa).
Vit BUBENíK  (Memorial Univ of Newfoundland)
Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 165
US & Canada: 1 55619 881 7 / USD 89.00 (Hardcover)
Rest of world; 90 272 3670 4 / NLG 178.00 (Hardcover)
This monograph aims to close the gap in our knowledge of the nature and
pace of grammatical change during the formative period of today's
Indo-Aryan languages. During the 6th-12th c. the gradual erosion of the
synthetic morphology of Old Indo-Aryan resulted ultimately in the
remodelling of its syntax in the direction of the New Indo-Aryan analytic
type.
This study concentrates on the emergence and development of the ergative
construction in terms of the passive-to-ergative reanalysis and the
co-existence of the ergative construction with the old and new analytic
passive constructions. Special attention is paid to the actuation problem
seen as the tug of war between conservative and eliminative forces during
their development. Other chapters deal with the evolution of grammatical

and lexical aspect, causativization, modality, absolute constructions and
subordination.
This study is based on a wealth of new data gleaned from original poetic
works in Apabhramsa (by Svayambhudeva, Puspadanta, Haribhadra,
Somaprabha et al.). It contains sections dealing with descriptive
techniques of Medieval Indian grammarians (esp. Hemacandra). All the
Sanskrit, Prakrit and Apabhramsa examples are consistently parsed and
translated.
The opus is cast in the theoretical framework of Functional Grammar of the
Prague and Amsterdam Schools. It should be of particular interest to
scholars and students of Indo-Aryan and general historical linguistics,
especially those interested in the issues of morphosyntactic change and
typology in their sociohistorical setting.


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