LINGUIST List 10.670

Thu May 6 1999

Books: Historical Linguistics

Editor for this issue: Scott Fults <scottlinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Paul Peranteau, Nostratic; History in Language, Linguistics and Text

John Benjamins Publishing announces the availability of these two works: 

Nostratic.
Sifting the Evidence.
Joseph C. SALMONS and Brian D. JOSEPH (eds.)
Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 142
US & Canada: 1 55619 597 4 / USD 75.00 (Hardcover)
Rest of world: 90 272 3646 1 / NLG 150.00 (Hardcover)

The "Nostratic" hypothesis - positing a common linguistic ancestor for
a wide range of language families including Indo-European, Uralic, and
Afro-Asiatic - has produced one of the most enduring and often intense
controversies in linguistics. Overwhelmingly, though, both supporters
of the hypothesis and those who reject it have not dealt directly with
one another's arguments. This volume brings together selected
representatives of both sides, as well as a number of agnostic
historical linguists, with the aim of examining the evidence for this
particular hypothesis in the context of distant genetic relationships
generally.

The volume contains discussion of variants of the Nostratic hypothesis
(A. Bomhard; J. Greenberg; A. Manaster-Ramer, K. Baertsch, K. Adams,
& P. Michalove), the mathematics of chance in determining the
relationships posited for Nostratic (R. Oswalt; D. Ringe), and the
evidence from particular branches posited in Nostratic (L. Campbell;
C. Hodge; A. Vovin), with responses and additional discussion by
E. Hamp, B. Vine, W. Baxter and B. Comrie.


The Virtues of Language.
History in language, linguistics and texts.
Papers in memory of Thomas Frank.
Dieter STEIN and Rosanna SORNICOLA (eds.)
Studies in the History of the Language Sciences 87
US & Canada: 1 55619 624 5 / USD 74.00 (Hardcover)
Rest of world: 90 272 4575 4 / NLG 148.00 (Hardcover)

The volume contains 13 specially written specialist articles on a wide
range of subjects within the ambit of the history of the English
language and prominent literary uses of it. In uniting linguistic and
literary pursuits in a single volume, it follows the noble Neapolitan
scholar's research interests, as well as representing topics that
figure prominently in any comprehensive university course in
English. Subjects range from the rise of the present progressive in
the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle via issues in Medieval English, concepts of
language inherent in the Early Modern English grammatical treatises
and an evaluation of their value as evidence for the development of
the language, the "new science" and language in the 17th century, on
literary issues like the "implied director" in Macbeth, Sir Elyot's
Enigmatic "Image of Governance", English history reflected in Ben
Jonson to the history of text types and Jespersen's reading of
Saussure's "Cours".

Apart from an introductory section with articles on Frank's biography,
his scientific activities and his impact on the field, the book
contains work by Susan Fitzmaurice, Nicola Pantaleo, Gabriella Di
Martino, Konrad Koerner, Stefano Manferlotti, Uwe Baumann, Anna Maria
Palombi Cataldi, Rosanna Sornicola and Dieter Stein.



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Offices: Philadelphia Amsterdam
Websites: http://www.benjamins.com http://www.benjamins.nl
E-mail: servicebenjamins.com customer.servicesbenjamins.nl
Phone: +215 836-1200 +31 20 6762325
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