The Handbook of Historical Linguistics, Volume II

by Richard D. Janda (Editor), Brian D. Joseph (Editor), Barbara S. Vance (Editor)

Overview

An entirely new follow-up volume providing a detailed account of numerous additional issues, methods, and results that characterize current work in historical linguistics. 

This brand-new, second volume of The Handbook of Historical Linguistics is a complement to the well-established first volume first published in 2003. It includes extended content allowing uniquely comprehensive coverage of the study of language(s) over time. Though it adds fresh perspectives on several topics previously treated in the first volume, this Handbook focuses on extensions of diachronic linguistics beyond those key issues.

This Handbook provides readers with studies of language change whose perspectives range from comparisons of large open vs. small closed corpora, via creolistics and linguistic contact in general, to obsolescence and endangerment of languages. Written by leading scholars in their respective fields, new chapters are offered on matters such as the origin of language, evidence from language for reconstructing human prehistory, invocations of language present in studies of language past, benefits of linguistic fieldwork for historical investigation, ways in which not only biological evolution but also field biology can serve as heuristics for research into the rise and spread of linguistic innovations, and more. Moreover, it: 

• offers novel and broadened content complementing the earlier volume so as to provide the fullest available overview of a wholly engrossing field
• includes 23 all-new contributed chapters, treating some familiar themes from fresh perspectives but mostly covering entirely new topics
• features expanded discussion of material from language families other than Indo-European
• provides a multiplicity of views from numerous specialists in linguistic diachrony.

The Handbook of Historical Linguistics, Volume II is an ideal book for undergraduate and graduate students in linguistics, researchers and professional linguists, as well as all those interested in the history of particular languages and the history of language more generally. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781118732304
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	09/15/2020
Series:	Blackwell Handbooks in Linguistics
Sold by:	JOHN WILEY & SONS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	640
File size:	27 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Richard D. Janda is currently Visiting Scholar in French and Italian at Indiana University Bloomington, USA, but his teaching spans 11 universities in 9 US states. He is author or editor of over 75 publications, including The Handbook of Historical Linguistics (Wiley Blackwell, 2003). 

Brian D. Joseph is Distinguished University Professor of Linguistics and The Kenneth E. Naylor Professor of South Slavic Linguistics at The Ohio State University, USA. He has written and edited numerous books and published over 280 articles. He served as editor of the journal Language from 2002 – 2009, and is currently co-editor of the Journal of Greek Linguistics.

Barbara S. Vance is Associate Professor of Linguistics and Associate Professor of French Linguistics at Indiana University Bloomington, USA. She is the author of Syntactic Change in Medieval French (1997) and is a specialist in the historical syntax of French and Occitan.

Table of Contents

	List of Contributors	ix
	Preface	xi
Part I	Introduction	1
	On Language, Change, and Language Change - Or, Of History, Linguistics, and Historical Linguistics	3
Part II	Methods for Studying Language Change	181
1	The Comparative Method	183
2	On the Limits of the Comparative Method	213
3	Internal Reconstruction	244
4	How to Show Languages are Related: Methods for Distant Genetic Relationship	262
5	Diversity and Stability in Language	283
Part III	Phonological Change	311
6	The Phonological Basis of Sound Change	313
7	Neogrammarian Sound Change	343
8	Variationist Approaches to Phonological Change	369
9	"Phonologization" as the Start of Dephoneticization - Or, On Sound Change and its Aftermath: Of Extension, Generalization, Lexicalization, and Morphologization	401
Part IV	Morphological and Lexical Change	423
10	Analogy: The Warp and Woof of Cognition	425
11	Analogical Change	441
12	Naturalness and Morphological Change	461
13	Morphologization from Syntax	472
Part V	Syntactic Change	493
14	Grammatical Approaches to Syntactic Change	495
15	Variationist Approaches to Syntactic Change	509
16	Cross-Linguistic Perspectives on Syntactic Change	529
17	Functional Perspectives on Syntactic Change	552
Part VI	Pragmatico-Semantic Change	573
18	Grammaticalization	575
19	Mechanisms of Change in Grammaticization: The Role of Frequency	602
20	Constructions in Grammaticalization	624
21	An Approach to Semantic Change	648
Part VII	Explaining Linguistic Change	667
22	Phonetics and Historical Phonology	669
23	Contact as a Source of Language Change	687
24	Dialectology and Linguistic Diffusion	713
25	Psycholinguistic Perspectives on Language Change	736
	Bibliography	744
	Subject Index	843
	Name Index	856
	Language Index	879

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"The first edition of the Handbook of Historical Linguistics is the best-worn handbook among many in my office and even though it’s almost 20 years old, I still consult it often. Still, historical linguistics is a very different field today than it was in 2003 and this new edition fully reflects and engages with the state of the art. It’s a completely new volume, a worthy successor, and I look forward to wearing out this second edition."
Joseph Salmons, University of Wisconsin–Madison, USA

"This is an important resource for right now and far into the future. In its breadth and depth it has everything we could ask for and more, a comprehensive survey in 24 chapters written by the world’s foremost scholars. It unites time-honored fundamentals of historical linguistics and progressive lines of ongoing research."

Lyle Campbell, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, USA