LINGUIST List 13.2319

Mon Sep 16 2002

Books: Uralic/Anthropological Ling: Mercantonio

Editor for this issue: Tomoko Okuno <tomokolinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. tmac, Mercantonio: Anthropological Ling/Uralic Language Family

Title: The Uralic Language Family
Subtitle: Facts, Myths and Statistics
Series Title: Publications of the Philological Society
			
Publication Year: 2002
			
Publisher: Blackwell Publishers 
 http://www.blackwellpublishers.co.uk/
			
Book URL: http://www.blackwellpub.com/asp/book.asp?ref=0631231706
			
Author: Angela Mercantonio 
				
Paperback: ISBN: 0631231706, Pages: 360, Price: 37.95
Comment: *30% off with a subscription to Blackwell's LL+
			
Abstract:

In this book, which is aimed at general linguists as well as Uralic
specialists, Angela Marcantonio examines the history, phonology,
morphology, lexicon and onomastics of the Uralic languages. She uses
both conventional and modern statistical methods of analysis. She
shows how the belief that these languages form a genetic family is in
fact based on an interlocking set of assumptions, which, whilst
self-consistent, do not in fact have the status of scientific
evidence. For example, she shows that the reconstruction of the Uralic
node has more sound-laws than regular etymologies to obey them.

In addition to addressing the classification of the Uralic languages,
the approach adopted in this book could be applicable to other assumed
families. There is an on-going debate on the suitability of the
Comparative Method and its alternatives to establish language
relations, and this book illuminates the various approaches using
detailed evidence from an entire presumed family.

Lingfield(s): Anthropological Linguistics 
			 
Language Family(ies): Uralic (Subgroup Code: UR)
 
Written In: English (Language Code: ENG)