Research Catalog
The Indo-European controversy : facts and fallacies in historical linguistics
- Title
- The Indo-European controversy : facts and fallacies in historical linguistics / Asya Pereltsvaig and Martin W. Lewis.
- Author
- Pereltsvaig, Asya, 1972-
- Publication
- Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2015.
- Supplementary Content
- Cover image
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| Status | Format | Access | Call Number | Item Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Schwarzman Building to submit a request in person. | Book/Text | Use in library | JFE 16-9768 | Schwarzman Building - Main Reading Room 315 |
Details
- Additional Authors
- Lewis, Martin W.
- Description
- xii, 324 pages; 24 cm
- Summary
- "Over the past decade, a group of prolific and innovative evolutionary biologists has sought to reinvent historical linguistics through the use of phylogenetic and phylogeographical analysis, treating cognates like genes and conceptualizing the spread of languages in terms of the diffusion of viruses. Using these techniques, researchers claim to have located the origin of the Indo-European language family in Neolithic Anatolia, challenging the near-consensus view that it emerged in the grasslands north of the Black Sea thousands of years later. But despite its widespread celebration in the global media, this new approach fails to withstand scrutiny. As languages do not evolve like biological species and do not spread like viruses, the model produces incoherent results, contradicted by the empirical record at every turn. This book asserts that the origin and spread of languages must be examined primarily through the time-tested techniques of linguistic analysis, rather than those of evolutionary biology"--
- Subjects
- Phylogeography
- Phylogeny
- Evolution (Biology)
- Linguistic analysis (Linguistics)
- Indo-European languages > Study and teaching
- Bayesian statistical decision theory
- Indo-European languages > Research
- Indogermanische Sprachen
- LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES > Linguistics > General
- Sprachursprung
- Språkhistoria
- Indoeuropeiska språk > forskning
- Indo-Europeans > Migrations
- Historische Sprachwissenschaft
- Indo-Europeans > Origin
- Historical linguistics
- Bibliography (note)
- Includes bibliographical references and index.
- Contents
- List of figures -- List of maps -- List of tables -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction: The Indo-European debate and why it matters -- Part I. The vexatious history of Indo-European studies. Ideology and interpretation from the 1700s to the 1970s ; Anatolia vs. the Steppes -- Part II. The failings of the Bayesian phylogenetic research program. What theory we want and what theory we get ; Linguistic fallacies of the Bayesian phylogenetic model ; Dating problems of the Bayesian phylogenetic model ; The historical-geographical failure of the Bayesian phylogenetic model ; Unwarranted assumptions -- Part III. Searching for Indo-European origins. Why linguists don't do dates? -- or do they? ; Triangulating the Indo-European homeland ; The non-mystery of Indo-European expansion ; Whither historical linguistics? -- Conclusion: What is at stake in the Indo-European debate.
- Call Number
- JFE 16-9768
- ISBN
- 9781107054530
- 1107054532
- LCCN
- 2014040462
- OCLC
- 898162907
- Author
- Pereltsvaig, Asya, 1972- author.
- Title
- The Indo-European controversy : facts and fallacies in historical linguistics / Asya Pereltsvaig and Martin W. Lewis.
- Publisher
- Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2015.
- Type of Content
- text
- Type of Medium
- unmediated
- Type of Carrier
- volume
- Bibliography
- Includes bibliographical references and index.
- Local Note
- AUTH: STANFORD UNIVERSITY. CRITICAL EVALUATION OF HISTORICAL LINGUISTICS & INDO-EUROPEAN STUDIES.
- Connect to:
- Added Author
- Lewis, Martin W., author.
- Other Form:
- Ebook version 9781316309223
- Research Call Number
- JFE 16-9768