GradEast > Courses > Summer School in Grammaticalization > Abstracts > Lecturers' abstracts > Abstract Brian D. Joseph

Grammaticalization and comparative linguistics

Brian D. Joseph

Comparative historical linguistics came into its own in the 19th century, starting with pioneers such as Franz Bopp and Denmark's own Rasmus Rask, developing into what some have referred to as the "queen of historical sciences". Indeed, one of the major successes of such "classical" historical linguistic work is the ability that the methodology offered to fill in the gaps in the historical and prehistorical record. In this way, historical linguistics is like any historical investigation, in that the record and documentation one works with is necessarily spotty and imperfect, even in the best of cases, so that inferences about intermediate stages and hypothetical prior states need to be made. Historical linguistics, with the precision it offers regarding the mechanisms of language change, guided by such principles as regularity of sound change, is ahead of historical endeavors in other areas. A necessary part of any comparative study of grammatical systems is a concern for where the system and its pieces came from. That interest in turn entails an interest in what is tantamount to modern studies of grammaticalization; these studies become relevant in this regard since they make bold claims about intermediate stages in the development of grammatical material. Accordingly, I discuss here potential interactions between traditional comparative linguistics and grammaticalization studies and the contributions each can make to the other line of inquiry. Thus, drawing on examples from the literature on classical/traditional historical linguistics, I offer here some insights into what traditional comparative linguistics has had to say on the matter of grammatical change.

References

Joseph, Brian D. 2004. Rescuing Traditional (Historical) Linguistics from Grammaticalization "Theory". In Up and Down the Cline - The Nature of Grammaticalization, ed. by O. Fischer, M. Norde, & H. Perridon. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Co., pp. 44-71.

Pedersen, Holger. 1962. The discovery of language; linguistic science in the nineteenth century. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Chapter VII (pp. 240-310, but especially pp. 240-248, 265-270, 282-310).