The Routledge Handbook of Historical Linguistics (Routledge Handbooks in Linguistics) - Tapa blanda

"This new handbook by Routledge testifies that historical linguistics is a vibrant field.  The editors have given full scope to many exciting new methodologies, perspectives and interfaces, contextualising them by means of an excellent introduction and by background chapters on the history and the future of the field.  The book is a state of the art representation of the field for historical linguists, and for graduate and advanced undergraduate students."

Ans van Kemenade, Radboud University, The Netherlands

"This book offers wonderful breadth and depth - comprising very different perspectives on core elements of traditional work on language change (including its nineteenth-century foundations) and on modern lines of research, building from new work linking language change with other areas.  I look forward to teaching a research-oriented course based on this treasure."

David Lightfoot, University of Georgetown, USA

"...this volume represents a great introduction for anyone interested in historical linguistics, as well as in other connected disciplines such as history, archaeology, and molecular anthropology. Also, it represents a good starting point for research and an impressive testimony to the progress achieved in historical linguistics."

Monica Vasileanu, Romanian Academy, Institute of Linguistics, The LINGUIST List

The Routledge Handbook of Historical Linguistics provides a survey of the field covering the methods which underpin current work; models of language change; and the importance of historical linguistics for other subfields of linguistics and other disciplines.

Divided into five sections, the volume encompass a wide range of approaches and addresses issues in the following areas:

• historical perspectives
• methods and models
• language change
• interfaces
• regional summaries

Each of the thirty-two chapters is written by a specialist in the field and provides: a introduction to the subject; an analysis of the relationship between the diachronic and synchronic study of the topic; an overview of the main current and critical trends; and examples from primary data. The Routledge Handbook of Historical Linguistics is essential reading for researchers and postgraduate students working in this area.

Chapter 28 of this book is available for free in PDF format as Open Access at www.tandfebooks.com. It has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 3.0 license.