The Comparative Method Reviewed
Regularity and Irregularity in Language Change
Published on 16. May 1996
330 pages
978-0-19-536210-7 (ISBN)
Description
Historical reconstruction of languages relies on the comparative method, which itself depends on the notion of the regularity of change. The regularity of sound change is the famous Neogrammarian Hypothesis: "sound change takes place according to laws that admit no exception." The comparative method, however, is not restricted to the consideration of sound change, and neither is the assumption of regularity. Syntactic, morphological, and semantic change are all amenable in varying degrees, to comparative reconstruction, and each type of change is constrained in ways that enable the researcher to distinguish between regular and more irregular changes.
This volume draws together studies by scholars engaged in historical reconstruction, all focussing on the subject of regularity and irregularity in the comparative method. A wide range of languages are represented, including Chinese, Germanic, and Austronesian.
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Mark Durie | Malcolm Ross
The Comparative Method Reviewed
Regularity and Irregularity in Language Change
Book
08/1996
Oxford University Press Inc
€221.00
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Content
- Intro
- Contents
- 1 Introduction
- 2 The Comparative Method as Heuristic
- 3 On Sound Change and Challenges to Regularity
- 4 Footnotes to a History of Cantonese: Accounting for the Phonological Irregularlties
- 5 Early Germanic Umlaut and Variable Rules
- 6 The Neogrammarian Hypothesis and Pandemic Irregularity
- 7 Regularity of Change in What?
- 8 Contact-Induced Change and the Comparative Method: Cases from Papua New Guinea
- 9 Reconstruction in Morphology
- 10 Natural Tendencies of Semantic Change and the Search for Cognates
- Subject Index
- A
- B
- C
- D
- E
- F
- G
- H
- I
- L
- M
- N
- O
- P
- Q
- R
- S
- T
- U
- V
- W
- Z
- Language Index
- A
- B
- C
- D
- E
- F
- G
- H
- I
- J
- K
- L
- M
- N
- O
- P
- Q
- R
- S
- T
- U
- V
- W
- X
- Y
- Name Index
- A
- B
- C
- D
- E
- F
- G
- H
- I
- J
- K
- L
- M
- N
- O
- P
- R
- S
- T
- U
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- W
- Y
- Z
