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Language Classification: History and Method
How are relationships established between the world's languages? This is one of the most topical and most controversial questions in contemporary linguistics. The central aims of this book are to answer this question, to cut through the controversies, and to contribute to research in distant genetic relationships. In doing this the authors aim to: (1) show how the methods have been employed; (2) reveal which methods, techniques, and strategies have proven successful and which ones have proven ineffective; (3) determine how particular language families were established; (4) evaluate several of the most prominent and more controversial proposals of distant genetic relationship (such as Amerind, Nostratic, Eurasiatic, Proto-World, and others); and (5) make recommendations for practice in future research. This book will contribute significantly to understanding language classification in general.
- GenresLinguistics
548 pages, Hardcover
First published June 26, 2008
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About the author
Lyle Campbell
29books9followersLyle Richard Campbell is an American scholar and linguist known for his studies of indigenous American languages, especially those of Central America, and on historical linguistics in general. Campbell is professor emeritus of linguistics at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.
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June 27, 2013
A thorough overview of genetic language classification. To me the most interesting parts were the history sections, which looked in part at how early classification methodologies were often suspect because they relied on non-linguistic factors such as racial stereotypes for classifying languages. The constant bashing of a particular linguist called Greenberg (who was apparently very lax in his application of the comparative method in order to force data to fit pre-conceived theories) was also mildly amusing.
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