New Publications in Historical Linguistics

[Paul Peranteau]

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John Benjamins announces the availability of these new works:

Nostratic.
Sifting the Evidence.
Joseph C. SALMONS and Brian D. JOSEPH (eds.)
Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 142
US & Canada: 1 55619 597 4 / USD 75.00 (Hardcover)
Rest of world: 90 272 3646 1 / NLG 150.00 (Hardcover)

The "Nostratic" hypothesis - positing a common linguistic ancestor for
a wide range of language families including Indo-European, Uralic, and
Afro-Asiatic - has produced one of the most enduring and often intense
controversies in linguistics. Overwhelmingly, though, both supporters
of the hypothesis and those who reject it have not dealt directly with
one another's arguments. This volume brings together selected
representatives of both sides, as well as a number of agnostic
historical linguists, with the aim of examining the evidence for this
particular hypothesis in the context of distant genetic relationships
generally.

The volume contains discussion of variants of the Nostratic hypothesis
(A.  Bomhard; J. Greenberg; A. Manaster-Ramer, K. Baertsch, K. Adams,
& P.  Michalove), the mathematics of chance in determining the
relationships posited for Nostratic (R. Oswalt; D. Ringe), and the
evidence from particular branches posited in Nostratic (L. Campbell;
C. Hodge; A.  Vovin), with responses and additional discussion by
E. Hamp, B. Vine, W.  Baxter and B. Comrie.

Variation, Change, and Phonological Theory.  Frans HINSKENS, Roeland
VAN HOUT and W. Leo WETZELS (eds) Current Issues in Linguistic Theory
146 US & Canada: 1 55619 861 2 / USD 75.00 (Hardcover) Rest of World:
90 272 3650 X / NLG 150.00 (Hardcover) There is a growing awareness
that a fruitful cooperation between the (diachronic and synchronic)
study of language variation and change and work in phonological theory
is both possible and desirable. The study of language variation and
change would benefit from this kind of cooperation on the conceptual
and theoretical levels. Phonological theory may well profit from a
greater use of what is commonly called 'external evidence'.  This
volume contains contributions by outstanding representatives from the
more data-oriented fields and phonological theory. They discuss
possibilities and problems for a further integration of both areas, by
considering questions such as where and to which extent the two may
need each other, and whether there is a need for an interdisciplinary
conceptual framework and methodology. Attention is also paid to
questions regarding the cause and actuation, linguistic constraints
and the internal spread of linguistic change, as well as to possible
and impossible processes of language change.

Contributions by: A. Anttila; P. Auer; T. Borowsky & B. Horvath; H.
Cedergren; G. Docherty; P.Foulkes; J.Milroy; L. Milroy; G. Guy; P.
Kiparsky; W. Labov; M.-R. Lloret; J. Myers; M. van Oostendorp;
S. Rose; N.  Smith.

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