Historical Linguistics. An Introduction

419 Pages·1999·13.749 MB·English

by  Lyle Campbell

Historical Li-nguistics
An Introduction
lyle Campbell
Historical Linguistics
An Introduction

Historical Linguistics
An Introduction
Lyle Campbell
The MIT Press
Cambridge, Massachusetts
First MIT Press edition, 1999. Originally published in 1998 by Edinburgh University
Press.
© 1998 Lyle Campbell
The right of Lyle Campbell to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in
accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any
electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information
storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Campbell, Lyle.
Historical linguistics : an introduction I Lyle Campbell.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-262-53159-3 (pbk. : alk. paper)
I. Historical linguistics. I. Title.
P40.C36 1999
417'.7-dc21 98-39549
CIP
This book was printed and bound in the United States of America.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4
Contents
List of Tables ix
List of Figures and Maps xii
Preface xiii
Acknowledgements xvi
Phonetic Symbols and Conventions xvii
Phonetic Symbols Chart xix
1 Introduction 1
1.1 Introduction I
1.2 What is Historical Linguistics About? 4
1.3 Kinds of Linguistic Changes: An English Example 6
1.4 Exercises 10
2 Sound Change 16
2.1 Introduction 16
2.2 Kinds of Sound Change 17
2.3 Non-phonemic (Allophonic) Changes 19
2.4 Phonemic Changes 20
2.5 General Kinds of Sound Changes 25
2.6 Kinds of Common Sound Changes 31
2.7 Relative Chronology 43
2.8 Chain Shifts 44
2.9 Exercises 49
3 Borrowing 57
3.1 Introduction 57
3.2 What is a Loanword? 58
3.3 Why do Languages Borrow from One Another? 59
3.4 How do Words get Borrowed? 60
v
Contents
3.5 How do We Identify Loanwords and Detennine the
Direction of Borrowing? 64
3.6 Loans as Clues to Linguistic Changes in the Past 69
3.7 What Can Be Borrowed? 72
3.8 Cultural Inferences 77
3.9 Exercises 78
4 Analogical Change 89
4.1 Introduction 89
4.2 Proportional Analogy 90
4.3 Analogical Levelling 92
4.4 Analogical Extension 94
4.5 The Relationship between Analogy and Sound Change 95
4.6 Analogical Models 97
4.7 Other Kinds of Analogy 99
4.8 Exercises 105
5 The Comparative Method and
Linguistic Reconstruction 108
5.1 Introduction 108
5.2 The Comparative Method Up Close and Personal 111
5.3 A Case Study 132
5.4 Indo-European and the Regularity of Sound Change 137
5.5 Basic Assumptions of the Comparative Method 146
5.6 How Realistic are Reconstructed Proto-languages? 147
5.7 Exercises 148
6 Linguistic Classification 163
6.1 Introduction 163
6.2 The World's Language Families 163
6.3 Terminology 165
6.4 How to Draw Family Trees: Subgrouping 166
6.5 Glottochronology (Lexicostatistics) 177
6.6 Exercises 186
7 Models of Linguistic Change 187
7.1 Introduction 187
7.2 The Family-tree Model 187
7.3 The Challenge from Dialectology and the
'Wave Theory' 188
7.4 Dialectology (Linguistic Geography,
~ct Geography) 191
/
vi
Contents
7.5 A Framework for Investigating the Causes of
Linguistic Change 194
7.6 Sociolinguistics and Language Change 195
7.7 The Issue of Lexical Diffusion 198
8 Internal Reconstruction 201
8.1 Introduction 201
8.2 Internal Reconstruction Illustrated 201
8.3 Relative Chronology 207
8.4 The Limitations of Internal Reconstruction 215
8.5 Internal Reconstruction and the
Comparative Method 218
8.6 Exercises 220
9 Syntactic Change 226
9.1 Introduction 226
9.2 Mechanisms of Syntactic Change 226
9.3 Reanalysis and Extension Exemplified 231
9.4 Generati ve Approaches 234
9.5 Grammaticalisation 238
9.6 Syntactic Reconstruction 242
9.7 Exercises 251
10 Semantic Change and Lexical Change 254
10.1 Introduction 254
10.2 Traditional Considerations 256
10.3 Attempts to ExplaitJ. Semantic Change 267
10.4 Other Kinds of Lexical Change - New Words 273
10.5 Exercises 279
11 Explaining Linguistic Change 282
11.1 Introduction 282
11.2 Early Theories 283
11.3 Internal and External Causes 286
11.4 Interaction of Causal Factors 287
11.5 Explanation and Prediction 295
12 Areal Linguistics 299
12.1 Introduction 299
12.2 Defining the Concept 299
12.3 Examples of Linguistic Areas 300
12.4 How to Detennine Linguistic Areas 306
vii
Contents
12.5 Implications of Areal Linguistics for Linguistic
Reconstruction and Subgrouping 307
12.6 Areal Linguistics and Proposals of Distant
Genetic Relationship 309
13 Distant Genetic Relationship 311
13.1 Introduction 311
13.2 Lexical Comparison 314
13.3 Sound Correspondences 315
13.4 Grammatical Evidence 317
13.5 Borrowing 318
13.6 Semantic Constraints 319
13.7 Onomatopoeia 320
13.8 Nursery Fonns 321
13.9 Short Fonns and Unmatched Segments 322
13.10 Chance Similarities 322
13.11 Sound-Meaning Isomorphism 323
13.12 Only Linguistic Evidence 323
13.13 Erroneous MorphologiCal Analysis 323
13.14 Non-cognates 324
13.15 Spurious Fonns 325
13.16 Methodological Wrap-up 326
14 Philology: The Role of Written Records 327
14.1 Introduction 327
14.2 Philology 327
14.3 Examples of What Philology Can Contribute 328
14.4 The Role of Writing 333
14.5 Getting Historical Linguistic Infonnation for
Written Sources 335
15 Linguistic Prehistory 339
15.1 Introduction 339
15.2 Indo-European Linguistic Prehistory 340
15.3 The Methods of Linguistic Prehistory 345
15.4 Limitations and Cautions 371
Bibliography 374
lAnguage Index 386
Name Index 391
Subject Index 393
~
viii
List of Tables
Table 2.1 Sanskrit-Latin cognates showing Sanskrit merger
of e, 0, a > a 21
Table 2.2 Historical derivation of 'mouse', 'mice', 'foot', 'feet' 23
Table 2.3 Grassmann's Law and its interaction with other
Greek changes 30
Table 2.4 Grimm's Law in English, Spanish and French
comparisons 47
Table 4.1 Latin rhotacism and the interaction of analogy with
sound change 96
Table 5.1 Some Romance cognate sets 111
Table 5.2 Kaqchikel-English comparisons 114
Table 5.3 Some additional Romance cognate sets 122
Table 5.4 Further Romance cognate sets 124
Table 5.5 Some Mayan cognate sets 125
Table 5.6 Central Algonquian sound correspondences and
Bloomfield's reconstruction 127
Table 5.7 Nootkan correspondences involving nasals 130
Table 5.8 Some Finnish-Hungarian cognate sets 133
Table 5.9 Indo-European cognates reflecting Grimm's Law 137
Table 5.10 Exceptions to Grimm's Law in consonant clusters 141
Table 5.11 Examples illustrating Verner's Law 143
Table 5.12 Examples contrasting the effects of Grimm's Law
and Verner's Law on medial consonants 144
Table 5.13 Verner's Law in grammatical alternations 145
ix