 Trade In this Item for up to £4.35
Get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade in Trask's Historical Linguistics for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £4.35, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
The strength of the book is its suitability for beginning students ... a highly recommendable introduction into historical linguistics - one, I might add, one has been looking out for a long time.
Product Description
This book is an introduction to historical linguistics - the study of language change over time. Written in an engaging style and illustrated with examples from a wide range of languages, the book covers the fundamental concepts of language change, methods for historical linguistics, linguistic reconstruction, sociolinguistic aspects of language change, language contact, the birth and death of languages, language and prehistory and the issue of very remote relations.
A minimal knowledge of linguistic concepts is needed and the book is suitable for students approaching the subject for the first time. The exercises will be particularly useful to teachers and students alike.
A minimal knowledge of linguistic concepts is needed and the book is suitable for students approaching the subject for the first time. The exercises will be particularly useful to teachers and students alike.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
There are no customer reviews yet on Amazon.co.uk.
5 star
4 star
3 star
2 star
1 star
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
2 reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
A very useful textbook indeed for undergraduates and autodidacts
6 Oct 2007
Format:Paperback
Larry Trask's textbook of historical linguistics was first published in 1996. In 2007, several years after the untimely death of that great scholar, this revised edition appeared. However, the old first edition is still widely sold, and it can still be used by university courses to great profit. It could even be used by the individual who wants to learn about the subject. My review is based on that first edition, but if I get ahold of the new edition, I will update it accordingly.
In the introduction to the book, Trask himself categorized it among the competition. He felt that it was more demanding than Jeffers and Lehiste (1979), comparable to Lehmann (1992) but with substantially different organization and coverage, and less demanding than Anttila (1988) or Hock (1986), and I agree. Trask's book does assume some previous experience with basic linguistics, but it is clearly directed towards university undergraduates. It covers the usual ground, with recent research like new phonological theories and ergativity taken into account.
One feature that distinguishes Trask's book is the use of Basque in many examples. Though its speakers are securely located in the very Western European country of Spain, Basque is unfortunately left out from books based mainly on Western European languages due to its odd character. Nonetheless, some knowledge of Basque could come in handy for historical linguists--it would have helped me better understand Heine and Kuteva's monograph on the European sprachbund, for example.
Trask's textbook is also unique among the crowd for the attention he gives to long-range hypotheses, fairly remarking that perhaps linguists have missed some connections because of over-specialization, but soundly debunking the work of charlatans like Merrit Ruhlen who think they can reconstruct some kind of "Proto-World". A nice touch is how Trask compares the public's readiness to accept coincidential similarities between, say, Hawaiian and Ancient Greek to the so-called "birthday paradox".
My major complaint with Trask's book is with the production. The typesetting is hard on the eyes, and the binding does not lie flat. All in all, if I had to pick my favourite textbook on the field, it would be Campbell's recent Historical Linguistics, 2nd Edition: An Introduction, where the author's excellent material is presented in a supremely readable manner. Nonetheless, instructors will have to decide themselves what book is best for their course, and Trask is certainly one worth evaluating.
In the introduction to the book, Trask himself categorized it among the competition. He felt that it was more demanding than Jeffers and Lehiste (1979), comparable to Lehmann (1992) but with substantially different organization and coverage, and less demanding than Anttila (1988) or Hock (1986), and I agree. Trask's book does assume some previous experience with basic linguistics, but it is clearly directed towards university undergraduates. It covers the usual ground, with recent research like new phonological theories and ergativity taken into account.
One feature that distinguishes Trask's book is the use of Basque in many examples. Though its speakers are securely located in the very Western European country of Spain, Basque is unfortunately left out from books based mainly on Western European languages due to its odd character. Nonetheless, some knowledge of Basque could come in handy for historical linguists--it would have helped me better understand Heine and Kuteva's monograph on the European sprachbund, for example.
Trask's textbook is also unique among the crowd for the attention he gives to long-range hypotheses, fairly remarking that perhaps linguists have missed some connections because of over-specialization, but soundly debunking the work of charlatans like Merrit Ruhlen who think they can reconstruct some kind of "Proto-World". A nice touch is how Trask compares the public's readiness to accept coincidential similarities between, say, Hawaiian and Ancient Greek to the so-called "birthday paradox".
My major complaint with Trask's book is with the production. The typesetting is hard on the eyes, and the binding does not lie flat. All in all, if I had to pick my favourite textbook on the field, it would be Campbell's recent Historical Linguistics, 2nd Edition: An Introduction, where the author's excellent material is presented in a supremely readable manner. Nonetheless, instructors will have to decide themselves what book is best for their course, and Trask is certainly one worth evaluating.
Excellent introduction to historical linguistics
20 Mar 2012
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This book offers a great introduction to the field of historical linguistics, divided into several fields of study (phonology, morphology, syntax), all exemplified with data from different languages (especially English and Basque). Definitely a recommendation for a beginning linguist!
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
