Historical Linguistics: An Introduction

Citation

Campbell, L. (2013). Historical Linguistics: An Introduction (3rd ed.). MIT Press.

Chapter Summary

The third edition has seventeen chapters and about 510 pages. It is a hands-on textbook whose aim, in the author's words as reported by a reviewer, is to show "how to do historical linguistics," and almost every chapter ends with exercises. The sequence runs from the basic types of change (sound, borrowing, analogy), through the two central methods (the comparative method and internal reconstruction) and the classification of languages, to meaning, morphology and syntax, contact, causes of change, and the controversial questions of distant relationship, prehistory and quantitative methods.

Chapter 1: Introduction

The opening chapter defines the scope of historical linguistic inquiry and illustrates language change with examples from the history of English.

Chapter 2: Sound change

This chapter introduces the Neogrammarian hypothesis that sound changes are exceptionless and shows why it matters for reconstructing proto-languages. It argues that apparent counterexamples can be interpreted as regular changes, offers a detailed typology of sound changes, and shows how a relative chronology of changes is established and how changes can be related to one another, as in Grimm's law, where one shift fills the gap left by another.

Chapters 3–4: Borrowing; Analogy

Chapter 3 treats borrowing of all kinds of linguistic material, not only words: motives for borrowing, how borrowed words are integrated, how to tell the direction of borrowing, and what loanwords reveal about relative chronology. Chapter 4 distinguishes analogical levelling, which reduces the number of allomorphs a form has, from analogical extension, which carries an existing alternation to new cases.

Chapter 5: The comparative method and linguistic reconstruction

The central technique of the field. The chapter gives step-by-step instruction in reconstructing a proto-language from related languages and works through a case from the Finno-Ugric family.

Chapters 6–7: Linguistic classification; Models of linguistic change

Chapter 6 covers grouping languages into families and subgroups, and distinguishes language isolates from families with one surviving member, including how the history of an isolate can be approached through internal reconstruction, philology, loanwords and place names. Chapter 7 takes up the family-tree model and the wave theory, argues that the two can be reconciled, and reviews dialectological and sociolinguistic evidence and the debate about lexical diffusion.

Chapter 8: Internal reconstruction

Reconstruction from evidence within a single language, with step-by-step instruction and examples from Tojolabal, Nahuatl and Classical Greek, and with attention to the limits of the method.

Chapters 9–11: Semantic and lexical change; Morphological change; Syntactic change

Chapter 9 gives an extensive typology of semantic and lexical change and considers cognitive and sociocultural explanations. Chapter 10 covers morphological change and how morphology can be reconstructed by the comparative method. Chapter 11 treats reanalysis, extension and syntactic borrowing as mechanisms of syntactic change, discusses generative approaches and grammaticalization theory, and ends with syntactic reconstruction.

Chapters 12–13: Language contact; Explaining language change

Chapter 12 covers contact and areal linguistics, pidgins, creoles and mixed languages, and language extinction. Chapter 13 surveys proposed causes of change, rejects explanations such as climatic or racial determinism, and separates internal from external causes, showing with examples how several factors can interact.

Chapters 14–17: Distant genetic relationship; Written records; Linguistic prehistory; Quantitative approaches

Chapter 14, "Distant Genetic Relationship," examines how false cognates arise (onomatopoeia, nursery forms, borrowing, chance) and argues that many proposals of distant relationship do not withstand methodological scrutiny. Chapter 15 shows how philological evidence from written records can be used to recover changes and pronunciation. Chapter 16 uses Proto-Indo-European to show how reconstructed vocabulary can be linked to culture and archaeology in the study of linguistic prehistory. Chapter 17, "Quantitative Approaches to Historical Linguistics," introduces glottochronology and probability and network models, with scepticism about most of them.

Key Concepts

Chapters 1–8: Change and methods

• Neogrammarian hypothesis: the principle that sound change is regular and exceptionless.
• Analogical levelling and extension: two kinds of analogical change.
• Comparative method: reconstruction of a proto-language from related languages.
• Internal reconstruction: reconstruction of an earlier stage from evidence within one language.
• Family-tree model and wave theory: competing images of how languages diverge, treated as complementary.

Chapters 9–13: Kinds and causes of change

• Reanalysis, extension and syntactic borrowing: mechanisms of syntactic change.
• Grammaticalization: evaluated critically as a mechanism of change.
• Pidgins, creoles and mixed languages: contact outcomes treated with areal linguistics.

Chapters 14–17: Limits of the method

• Distant genetic relationship: proposals of relationship beyond what the comparative method can show.
• Linguistic prehistory: inferring the culture and homeland of a proto-language from its vocabulary.
• Glottochronology: a lexical dating method presented with scepticism.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• Hands-on approach. The publisher stresses abundant examples and exercises, and the third edition adds exercises and an instructor's manual with answers. Stefan Hartmann, reviewing the book on the LINGUIST List (2013), confirms that almost every chapter ends with exercises.
• Breadth of data. The publisher says examples come from many languages: familiar ones such as English, French, German and Spanish for accessibility, and non-Indo-European languages to show the range of the concepts.
• Balanced treatment of opposing views. Hartmann finds that Campbell succeeds in presenting a reasonably unbiased account of opposing opinions, including a balanced account of grammaticalization theory, which the author has criticized elsewhere.
• Scope beyond the classical core. In addition to sound change and reconstruction, the book includes sociolinguistic contributions to change, areal linguistics, syntactic change, distant relationship and linguistic prehistory, and the new edition adds morphological change and quantitative approaches.

Limitations

• Demanding as a first book. Hartmann notes that Campbell's taste for fine-grained typologies and lists of examples running many pages makes it not necessarily an easy read, and that it requires a solid background in general linguistics and is hardly recommended as a first encounter with historical linguistics.
• Length. At about 510 pages and seventeen chapters it is more than most one-semester courses can cover, so instructors must select.
• Sceptical stance on some topics. The author argues against many distant-relationship proposals and doubts most quantitative methods, so readers get his view of these debates rather than a neutral survey.
• Superseded by a later edition. A fourth edition of the book has since appeared, so the third reflects the field as of 2013.

Where It Fits in the Course

Campbell is the detailed, method-focused textbook of the historical linguistics course. Crowley and Bowern's An Introduction to Historical Linguistics is a concise introduction to the techniques with many examples from Australia and the Pacific, and Trask's Historical Linguistics is an introductory textbook covering the main types of change and the methods of reconstruction; either can serve as a first book before Campbell. Aitchison's Language Change: Progress or Decay? is a readable introduction that examines the belief that change is decay, and suits readers who want the sociolinguistic side of change first.

Hock and Joseph's Language History, Language Change, and Language Relationship covers similar ground with data from Indo-European and other families and is the closest in scope, so the two can be compared. Ringe and Eska's Historical Linguistics: Toward a Twenty-First Century Reintegration takes a more theoretical, generative approach and presupposes elementary phonetics and generative phonology and syntax; Campbell's chapters on methods are a natural preparation for it.

How to Use This Book

The book is for undergraduates and graduate students who have taken introductory linguistics, including phonetics and phonology with some comfort in the International Phonetic Alphabet, and want depth in method.

A practical plan: read Chapters 1–5 in order, since sound change, borrowing, analogy and the comparative method are the foundation of the field, and work the exercises. Chapters 6–8 then add classification, models of change and internal reconstruction. Chapters 9–13 can be chosen according to the course (meaning and morphology, syntax and grammaticalization, contact, causes), and Chapters 14–17 suit advanced courses or readers interested in the controversies around deep relationship, prehistory and dating. Use the instructor's manual, where available, to check the answers to the exercises.