Publication Date

2006

Journal or Book Title

Berkeley Linguistics Society: Proceedings of the Annual Meeting

Abstract

In a recent paper I argued that diachronic linguistics can explain certain typological phenomena that are otherwise problematic; in the present paper I want to discuss two other ways the study of historical data can contribute to synchronic linguistics. In §1 I argue that consideration of a prior stage of a language offers the kind of insight also provided by the examination of closely related languages. In §2 I show that diachronic data offer a way of testing hypotheses and claims.

Comments

Part I, translated as “Ist’oria sinkroniis mxardasač’erad, I”, was published also in Enatmecnierebis Sak’itxebi [Questions of Linguistics] 1-2.2006, pp. 81-88, a journal published at Tbilisi State University, Republic of Georgia. Part II is to appear in the next number of this journal.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.3765/bls.v30i1.942

Pages

142-159

Volume

30

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