
On Explaining Language Change
Lass(Author)
Cambridge University Press
Published on 30. July 2009
Book
Paperback/Softback
204 pages
978-0-521-11716-6 (ISBN)
Description
Roger Lass is concerned about the nature of argumentation within linguistics and the status of its data and theoretical constructs. Through an examination of standard strategies of explanation in historical linguistics (particularly of phonological change), in the light of past approaches to scientific epistemology, Dr Lass convincingly demonstrates that attempts to model explanations of linguistic change on those of the physical sciences are failures both in practice and in principle. Linguists can neither assimilate their discipline crudely to the natural or the other human sciences nor, at the other extreme, shelter behind the notion of a private self-validating paradigm. Although Dr Lass outlines some tentative paths towards an alternative epistemology, his main concern is that linguists should confront the philosophical implications of their subject, and he raises questions which both linguists and philosophers will need to consider.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
Worked examples or Exercises
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 13 mm
Weight
339 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-521-11716-6 (9780521117166)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
03/1980
Cambridge University Press
€22.91
Article exhausted; check for reprint
Previous edition
Book
03/1980
Cambridge University Press
€22.91
Article exhausted; check for reprint
Content
Preface; 1. What does it mean to explain something?; 2. Why 'naturalness' does not explain anything; Appendix to chapter 2. Naturalness, 'uniformitarianism' and reconstruction; 3. The teleology problem: can language change be 'functional'?; Appendix to chapter 3. Four problems related to the question of function; 4. Causality and 'the nature of language'; 5. Conclusion and prospects: the limits of deductivism and some alternatives; References; Index.