Linguistic Reconstruction: An Introduction to Theory and Method (Oxford Textbooks in Linguistics) [Paperback]

As a graduate student of historical linguistics, I thought I had encountered every textbook and handbook of the subject around. I was surprised, however, to find this one. Anthony Fox's LINGUISTIC RECONSTRUCTION, published in 1996 in the series Oxford Textbooks in Linguistics, hasn't gained the popularity of other introductions like Lehmann's or Hock's, but that is a real shame as it is perhaps the most rigorous of them all.

Fox's textbook covers the usual ground of historical linguistics textbooks: the comparative method, internal reconstruction, language contacts, typology, and reconstruction of culture and society from lexicon. Examples are mainly drawn from the comparative study of the Indo-European languages, though Bantu and Austronesian material is also widely used. Like Lehmann in his Theoretical Bases of Indo-European Linguistics, Fox seems to believe that knowing the history of the field and its eminent personalities is just as important as knowing current vogues.

However, Fox's book is special because of the author's honesty about the limitations of each of the various methods of linguistic reconstruction. For example, he explains that the view of the proto-language reconstruction by the comparative method differs from that by internal reconstruction, the first producing large phoneme inventories and the second a simpler inventory. A reasonable reconstruction can only be achieved by a combination of methods. Furthermore, out of all the textbooks for historical linguistics that I know, Fox is the only one that strongly warns the student to ensure that his arguments are not circular. The criticism of glottochronology here is also considerably more devastating than elsewhere.

I would not, however, recommend the book for the complete newbie, as Fox's writing is extremely challenging. Better to enter the field with Campbell's excellent Historical Linguistics, 2nd Edition: An Introduction. Nonetheless, I strongly recommend this book to all who want to refine their skills. I certainly feel that I am a better student after reading Fox's LINGUISTIC RECONSTRUCTION.