Synopsis
How and why are languages constantly changing? Historical linguistics seeks to find out by going beyond the history of individual languages to discover the general principles which underlie language change. But our evidence is severely limited. Most of the world's languages are still unwritten, and even in areas with long written traditions, such as Europe and the Near East, documentary evidence stretches only a little way back along the path of the historical development of languages. How, then, can we uncover our long linguistic prehistory, and what can it tell us about language change? This new book, the first in the major new series, Oxford Textbooks in Linguistics, is an accessible general guide for students with an elementary knowledge of linguistics to the methods and theoretical bases of linguistic reconstruction. Fox provides a comprehensive survey both of orthodox techniques and of newer, less well established principles such as the application of linguistic universals and language typology, and quantitative techniques.
Review
Fox's survey is judicious and very well-informed ... Fox's book would be hard to beat ... produced as impeccably as one expects from Oxford University Press. (Times Higher Education Supplement)
the author offers an extensive bibliography; his main purpose is to offer students a clear survey of the approaches of various scholars ... an excellent, informative introduction to the topic which will render great service to students (Journal of Indo-European Studies, Volume 24, Number 3 and 4, Fall/Winter 1996)
the book does a good job of drawing together and providing a fairly consistent presentation of a variety of historical views ... Besides breadth of scope, the text provides an excellent bibliography ... The author's aim is to provide the student with a sense not only of techniques but of the discipline itself. He provides a very competent and sensitive account of the rival approaches in historical studies and provides also a sense of the consequent tentative character even of fundamental matters. (James Hearne, Western Washington University, Linguistics 33)
a great deal to recommend it, particularly the description of the contrast of the CM and IR. (Diachronica)
One does not need to know about historical linguistics to understand this book. Fox assumes his reader is acquainted with the basics of linguistics, but even a novice in historical linguistics can plunge into this book. (Notes on Linguistics 78)
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