Two New Books in Historical Linguistics

[Paul Peranteau]

For HISTLING
John Benjamins Publishing announce the availability of two new works in 
Historical Linguistics:

LANGUAGE HISTORY. An introduction
Andrew L. Sihler
University of Wisconsin, Madison
Current Issues in Linguistic Theory, 191. xvi, 298 pp.
US & Canada: 1 55619 968 6 / USD 70.00 (Hardcover)     1 55619 969 4 / USD 
29.95 (Paperback)
Rest of world: 90 272 3697 6 / NLG 140.00 (Hardcover)     90 272 3698 4 / 
NLG 60.00 (Paperback)
[Textbook Examination copies available - contact customer service]

This classroom-tested volume aspires to be a brief but technically and 
factually accurate exposition of linguistic description and history. 
Whether studied as prime subject or as background information, it should 
help students understand the assumptions and reasoning that underlie the 
contents of their handbooks and etymological dictionaries.
This book should be a useful guide for anyone unfamiliar with (historical) 
linguistics who is studying the history of a language, and also for those 
who are enrolled in courses devoted to reading texts in old languages.

Contents:

Introduction
1. Changes in Pronunciation: Assimilation; Dissimilation; Addition of 
segments; Loss of segments; Metathesis; Other interactions between 
segments; Changes in manner of articulation.
2. Sound Laws: Merger; Primary split (conditioned merger); Secondary split 
(phonolo-gization); Sound laws; Efficient causes of sound change; 
Patternless changes.
3. Analogy: Leveling analogy; Recomposition; Contamination; Portmanteau 
words; Folk etymology; Morphological analogy; Hypercorrection.
4. Semantic Change: Changes in the number of features; Pejoration and 
melioration; Foregrounding of connotations; Figurative meanings (metaphor, 
metonymy); Changes resulting from changes in the structure of language, 
reinterpretation of ambiguities, and changes in the physical or social 
environment; Calques; The etymological fallacy.
5. Reconstruction: The comparative method; Reconstruction of features of 
morphology, semantics, and syntax; Internal reconstruction; The 
relationship between phonological restructuring and internal reconstruction.
6. External Aspects of Language: Language and dialect; Differentiation of 
languages; Languages in contact.
7. Written Records: The interpretation of written records; Transliteration; 
Borrowing; Multiple values of symbols; Chronology; Borrowing symbols; 
Comparative evidence; Typology, parallelism; Statements by contemporaneous 
authorities; Poetry.
Appendix: Phonetics  the mechanisms of speech and the classifications of 
speech sounds.
Glossary; Glossary of Terms in German
Bibliography
Index


Historical Linguistics 1995, Volume 1.
General issues and non-Germanic Languages.
Selected papers from the 12th International Conference on Historical
Linguistics, Manchester, August 1995.
  John Charles SMITH (St. Catherine's College, Oxford) and Delia BENTLEY 
(University of Manchester) (eds.)
Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 161
90 272 3666 6 / NLG 200.00 (Hardcover)
1 55619 877 9 / USD 100.00 (Hardcover)

This volume contains papers on general issues of language change, as well
as specific studies of non-Germanic languages, including Romance,
Slavonic, Japanese, Australian languages, and early Indo-European. A
second volume, edited by Richard M. Hogg and Linda van Bergen, will
contain papers on Germanic.
Contributions by: Jean-Luc Azra; Vit Bubeník; Michela Cennamo; Alan Dench;
Monique Dufresne, Fernande Dupuis & Mireille Tremblay; Denis Dumas;
Anthony Fox; Bjarke Frellesvig; Peter Hendriks; Alan Hyun-Oak Kim;Leonid
I. Kulikov; Christopher Lyons; Silvia Luraghi; Maria M. Manoliu; Marianne
Mithun; Christopher J. Pountain; Tim Pulju; Anna Giacalone Ramat; Anju
Saxena; Paul Sidwell; Anna Siewierska; Ann Taylor; Tandy Warnow; Don
Ringe; Pieter van Reenen; Lene Schøsler.

Paul Peranteau (paul at benjamins.com)
P O Box 27519                   Ph: 215 836-1200
Philadelphia PA 19118-0519      Fax: 215 836-1204
John Benjamins Publishing Co. website: http://www.benjamins.com 
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