The Rise and Fall of LanguagesThis book puts forward a new approach to language change, the punctuated equilibrium model. This is based on the premise that during most of the 100,000 or more years that humans have had language, states of equilibrum have existed during which linguistic features diffused across the languages in a given area so that they gradually converged on a common prototype. From time to time, the state of equilibrium would be punctuated, with the expansion and split of peoples and of languages. Most recently, as a result of European colonization and globalization of communication, many languages face imminent extinction. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
Preliminaries | 7 |
Linguistic areas and diffusion | 15 |
31 What can diffuse | 19 |
32 Languages in contact | 22 |
The family tree model | 28 |
41 Criteria | 30 |
42 Protolanguages | 45 |
62 Punctuation | 73 |
63 Some examples | 85 |
More on protolanguages | 97 |
Recent history | 103 |
Todays priorities | 116 |
92 Some modern myths | 128 |
93 What every linguist should do | 135 |
Summary and prospects | 139 |
43 Dating | 46 |
44 Subgrouping | 49 |
Modes of change | 54 |
52 Language splitting | 58 |
53 The origin of language | 63 |
The punctuated equilibrium model | 67 |
61 Linguistic equilibrium | 68 |
102 Concerning comparative linguistics | 140 |
103 Concerning descriptive linguistics | 143 |
104 Concerning languages | 145 |
where the comparative method discovery procedure fails | 149 |
153 | |
163 | |
Common terms and phrases
adjective class affixes Africa Arawak areal Australia Australian languages Austronesian borrowing communication comparative method complex convergence culture dependent marking discussed divergence Dixon Dyirbal endangered languages English ergative evidentiality example family tree model genetic relationship geographical glottochronology gradually grammatical categories grammatical forms Greenberg groups of languages guages Guinea happened head marking head-marking languages human language hypothesis idea indigenous Indo-European instance Jarawara language development language family language or dialect Language splitting languages change lexemes lexical Lexicostatistics lingua linguistic area linguistic equilibrium linguistic situation Mbugu missionaries modern languages neighbouring languages Niger-Congo non-prestige language Nostratic Nostraticists noun classes number of languages Okinawa original palatal consonant period of equilibrium period of punctuation phonemes phonological political groups population prefix prestige language proto proto-Indo-European proto-language proto-Uralic punctuated equilibrium punctuated equilibrium model reconstructed region scenario similar speakers structure subgrouping suffix suggest superstratum tend tion tribe typological verb vowel words