Genetic linguistics : essays on theory and method / Joseph H. Greenberg ; edited with an introduction and bibliography by William Croft.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Historical linguistics and unwritten languages -- 2. Genetic relationship among languages -- 3. The problem of linguistic subgroupings -- 4. The general classification of Central and South American languages -- App. Tentative linguistic classification of Central and South America -- 5. The methodology of language classification -- 6. The principles of genetic linguistic classification -- App. A generalization of glottochronology to n languages -- 7. On lumping and splitting in linguistics and biology -- 8. The concept of proof in genetic linguistics -- 9. Review of Hamito-Semitic etymological dictionary : materials for a reconstruction / Vladimir E. Orel and Olga V. Stolbova -- 10. Protolinguistic variation : a link between historical linguistics and sociolinguistics -- 11. Indo-Europeanist practice and American Indianist theory in linguistic classification -- 12. The Indo-Pacific hypothesis -- App. A comparison of Greenberg's and Wurm's classifications of the non-Austronesian, non-Australian languages of Oceania / Timothy Usher -- 13. Classification of American Indian languages : a reply to Campbell -- 14. In defense of Amerind -- 15. Does Altaic exist? -- 16. The convergence of Eurasiatic and Nostratic -- 17. Linguistic typology and history : review of Linguistic diversity in space and time by Johanna Nichols -- 18. Are there mixed languages? -- 19. Language and archaeology : review of Archaeology and language : the puzzle of Indo-European origins by Colin Renfrew and A guide to the world's languages, vol. 1 : classification, by Merritt Ruhlen -- 20. Beringia and New World origins : the linguistic evidence -- Bibliography of works related to Joseph H. Greenberg's theory and methods for genetic linguistics -- A. Works by Joseph H. Greenberg on genetic linguistics -- B. Reviews, commentaries, and discussion of Joseph H. Greenberg's works on genetic linguistics.

"Fifty years ago, Joseph Greenberg put forward the now widely-accepted classification of African languages. This book charts the progress of his work on language classification in Oceania, the Americas, and Eurasia, in which he proposed the language families Indo-Pacific, Amerind, and Eurasiatic. It shows how he established and deployed three fundamental principles: that the most reliable evidence for genetic classification is the pairing of sound and meaning; that nonlinguistic evidence, such as skin colour or cultural traits, should be excluded from the analysis; and that the vocabulary and inflections of a very large number of languages should be simultaneously compared. The volume includes Joseph Greenberg's substantive contributions to the debate his work provoked and concludes with his writings on the links between genetic linguistics and human history."--BOOK JACKET.

Machine converted from AACR2 source record.