LINGUIST List 12.297

Sun Feb 4 2001

Books: Historical Linguistics

Editor for this issue: Naomi Ogasawara <naomilinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Paul Peranteau, Historical Ling: Textual Parameters in Older Languages, Herring et al.

John Benjamins Publishing announces a new work in Historical Linguistics.

Textual Parameters in Older Languages.
Susan C. HERRING, Pieter van REENEN and Lene SCH�SLER (University of Texas, 
Arlington / Free University, Amsterdam / University of Copenhagen)(eds.)
Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 195
US & Canada: 1 55619 973 2 / USD 79.00 (Hardcover)
Rest of World: 90 272 3702 6 / NLG 158.00 (Hardcover)

Textual Parameters in Older Languages takes a contemporary approach to
the inherent limitations of using older texts as data for linguistic
analysis, drawing on methods of text analysis, pragmatics and
sociolinguistics to supplement traditional historical and philological
methods. The focus of the book is on the importance of controlling for
textual parameters-defined by the editors as dimensions of variation
associated with texts and their production, including text type,
degree of poeticality, orality, and dialect-in the analysis of older
language data. Failure to do so can result in invalid
generalizations; recognizing the influence of textual parameters,
conversely, raises a myriad of issues for the practice and theory of
historical linguistics.

The 12 essays in this collection apply this approach in analyses of
anaphora, non-finite verbal forms, particles, punctuation, word order
and other phenomena in a wide range of languages including Ancient
Tamil, Sanskrit, Latin, Heian Japanese, Medieval Greek, Old French,
Old Russian, Middle English, and Modern Danish. An in-depth
introduction by the editors lays out the goals of the textual
parameters approach, and considers the methodological and theoretical
consequences of the evidence presented in the book as a whole.

Contributions by: 
Susan Herring, Pieter van Reenen & Lene Sch�sler; Suzanne Fleischman;
Machtelt Bolkestein; Laurel Brinton; Hans Heinrich Hock; Shoichi Iwasaki;
Merja Kyt�; Brian Joseph; Jadranka Gvozdanovic; Anthony Kroch, 
Ann Taylor & Donald Ringe; Frans Gregersen & Inge Ilse Pedersen.


 John Benjamins Publishing Co.
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
Fax: +215 836-1204 +31 20 6739773