Origin and Diversification of Language - Hardcover

Swadesh, Morris H.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0710071957 ISBN 13: 9780710071958

Publisher: Routledge & Kegan Paul PLC, 1972

Synopsis

Morris Swadesh, one of this century's foremost scientific investigators of language, dedicated much of his life to the study of the origin and evolution of language. This volume, left nearly completed at his death and edited posthumously by Joel F. Sherzer, is his last major study of this difficult subject.Swadesh discusses the simple qualities of human speech also present in animal language, and establishes distinctively human techniques of expression by comparing the common features that are found in modern and ancient languages. He treats the diversification of language not only by isolating root words in different languages, but also by dealing with sound systems, with forms of composition, and with sentence structure. In so doing, he demonstrates the evidence for the expansion of all language from a single central area. Swadesh supports his hypothesis by "exhibits" that conveniently present the evidence in tabular form. Further clarity is provided by the use of a suggestive practical phonetic system, intelligible to the student as well as to the professional.The book also contains an Appendix, in which the distinguished ethnographer of language, Dell Hymes, gives a valuable account of the prewar linguistic tradition within which Swadesh did some of his most important work.

About this title

About the Author

Morris Swadesh (1909-1967) initiated or was associated with the introduction of many new approaches in scientific linguistics, including phonemics, glottochronology, and new concepts of language evolution. At the time of his death, he was research professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. Joel F. Sherzer is a professor in the Departments of Anthropology and Archeology at the University of Texas at Austin. He is the author, editor, or compiler of many books, including Stories, Myths, Chants, and Songs of the Kuna Indians, Speech Play and Verbal Art, and Verbal Art in San Blas: Kuna Culture through its Discourse. Dell Hymes is Commonwealth Professor of Anthropology, Emeritus at the University of Virginia. He is the author of many works, including Now I Know Only So Far: Essays in Ethnopoetics and Ethnography, Linguistics, Inequality: Essays in Education, 1978-1994.

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge & Kegan Paul PLC
• Publication date: 1972
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0710071957
• ISBN 13: 9780710071958
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 335
• Editor: Sherzer Joel F.