Ling 4/520: Historical and Comparative Linguistics, Winter 2011
Tucker Childs, childst@pdx.edu, 503/725-4099; East Hall 241
Course description
Course description
Historical-comparative linguistics analyzes how languages change over time and what the
results of these changes are, namely, dialects and languages. Thus, an important result of
this enterprise is the genetic classification of languages and determining the degree of
relatedness between languages. Equally as important and in some cases even more
important is the degree to which languages have been affected by other languages with
which they have been in contact. This sub-field is properly “contact” or “areal”
linguistics, a field of study in its own right, but also part of historical-comparative
linguistics. Thus, languages can also be classified as to how they are typologically similar,
which features are shared due to propinquity, i.e. have spread via borrowing or
“diffusion”.
The study of individual words (etymology) is just one component of historical
comparative study, but represents a relatively minor component in terms of the overall
grammar of a language. Therefore, in addition to considering the history of individual
words, we will also look at sound change (phonology), semantic change, as well as at
changes in morphology and syntax. Although less well researched and understood,
pragmatic and discourse structures will also be considered part of the investigation. Each
of these grammatical sub-components can be considered independent systems in and of
themselves, but the most illuminating perspective considers a language as a whole,
embedded in a socio-cultural matrix.
Central to the study of historical-comparative linguistics is the methodology used for
identifying relations. The study began (some say linguistics itself began) with the surveys
of the Brothers Grimm and the Neogrammarians, who were very much interested in
comparing dialects and in reconstructing the dialects’ common ancestor. But much has
changed in the analysis of language since the nineteenth century, especially in identifying
the relevance of social factors. Oftentimes, detailed synchronic analysis can reveal much
about the past of a language and perhaps something about its future. Particularly
important in the discovery process has been the study of pidgins and creoles, where
change is telescoped into observable time and is thus more susceptible to observation and
analysis.
The most important question we will consider is why languages change, perhaps an
ultimately unanswerable question. Some answers will come from the historical record,
especially as it informs us of cultural and socioeconomic factors. Others may come from
purely structural factors, e.g., language universals, and from functional considerations,
e.g., ease of articulation. Early models for language change are the family tree and
radiating waves, neither of which is entirely satisfactory in the final analysis.
Evolutionary theory, especially the concepts of “punctuation” and “equilibrium, will be
helpful in understanding diversification and stasis. An equally important question is why
languages do not change.
Although we will be using English and other familiar Indo-European languages for our
examples, we will also consider change in languages elsewhere, especially in languages
from Africa, the locus of much of the instructor’s research and experience, Amazonia,
and Oceania.
Prerequisites. Students should have taken at least Ling 390 An Introduction to Linguistics.
Students who have not taken courses in structural linguistics (Phonetics, Structure of
English, Language Typology, etc.) may have to do some additional reading. A quiz at the
beginning of the second week will indicate how much, if any, review is needed.
Required text
Millar, Robert McColl. 2007. Trask's Historical Linguistics (2nd ed.): Hodder Arnold.