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A hands-on approach to historical linguistics, working through 101
problems in five different categories This workbook guides students
through 12 problems on the establishment of genetic relationship
among languages, 24 problems on sound change, 35 problems on
phonological reconstruction, 10 problems on internal
reconstruction, and 20 problems on subgrouping. Each section begins
with an introduction to the principles of historical linguistics as
applied to the topic in hand. The problems come next, ordered by
level of difficulty beginning, intermediate, advanced. The
'Solutions' section at the end of the book provides answers. The
workbook is intended to be a companion piece to any textbook on
historical linguistics, providing data-based instruction on the
basic principles of the field and illustrating theory in a
practical way. Key FeaturesA clear structure for each section
combining an overview of the topic with progressively difficult
problems to work throughCovers a wide range of problem types using
examples from a wide range of languages including Austronesian
languagesProvides explicit solutions to all problems without the
need to resort to a separate answer book or teacher's manual Groups
the problems by level of difficulty with realistic and holistic
expectations for solutions
Modernization and conversion to world religions are threatening the
survival of traditional belief systems, leaving behind only
mysterious traces of their existence. This book, based upon
extensive research conducted over a period of nearly four decades,
brings scientific rigor to one of the questions that have always
attracted human curiosity: that of the origin of the dragon. The
author demonstrates that both dragons and rainbows are cultural
universals, that many of the traits that are attributed to dragons
in widely separated parts of the planet are also attributed to
rainbows, and that the number and antiquity of such shared traits
cannot be attributed to chance or common inheritance, but rather to
common cognitive pathways by which human psychology has responded
to the natural environment in a wide array of cultures around the
world.
This book documents an understudied phenomenon in Austronesian
languages, namely the existence of recurrent submorphemic
sound-meaning associations of the general form -CVC. It fills a
critical gap in scholarship on these languages by bringing together
a large body of data in one place, and by discussing some of the
theoretical issues that arise in analyzing this data. Following an
introduction which presents the topic, it includes a critical
review of the relevant literature over the past century, and
discussions of the following: 1. problems in finding the root (the
"needle in the haystack" problem), 2. root ambiguity, 3. controls
on chance as an interfering factor, 4. unrecognized morphology as a
possible factor in duplicating evidence, 5. the shape/structure of
the root, 6. referents of roots, 7. the origin of roots, 8. the
problem of distinguishing false cognates produced by convergence in
root-bearing morphemes from legitimate comparisons resulting from
divergent descent, and 9. the problem of explaining how
submorphemes are transmitted across generations of speakers
independently of the morphemes that host them. The remainder of the
book consists of a list of sources for the 197 languages from which
data is drawn, followed by the roots with supporting evidence, a
short appendix, and references.
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