ON EXPLAINING LANGUAGE CHANGE by Roger Lass ( 9780521117166 ) - Books & Audio Books at Pickabook.co.uk

Item Details

Title:

ON EXPLAINING LANGUAGE CHANGE

By:

Roger Lass

Format:

Paperback

List price:

£32.00

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£28.00

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£4.00

ISBN 10:

052111716X

ISBN 13:

9780521117166

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Publisher:

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS

Pub. date:

30 March, 2009

Series:

Cambridge Studies in Linguistics No. 27

Pages:

204

Description:

Dr Lass argues that theoretical constructs of language change should be based more on philosophy than the physical sciences.

Synopsis:

Roger Lass is concerned about the nature of argumentation within linguistics and the status of its data and theoretical constructs. Through an examination of standard strategies of explanation in historical linguistics (particularly of phonological change), in the light of past approaches to scientific epistemology, Dr Lass convincingly demonstrates that attempts to model explanations of linguistic change on those of the physical sciences are failures both in practice and in principle. Linguists can neither assimilate their discipline crudely to the natural or the other human sciences nor, at the other extreme, shelter behind the notion of a private self-validating paradigm. Although Dr Lass outlines some tentative paths towards an alternative epistemology, his main concern is that linguists should confront the philosophical implications of their subject, and he raises questions which both linguists and philosophers will need to consider.

Publication:

Imprint:

Cambridge University Press

Returns:

Returnable

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