1 семинар Вопросы для обсуждения

1. Historical linguistics—traditionally known as philology—is the branch of linguistics concerned with the development of languages over time (where linguistics usually looks at one language at a time, philology looks at them all).

The primary tool of historical linguistics is the comparative method, a way of identifying relations among languages that lack written records. For this reason, historical linguistics is sometimes called comparative-historical linguistics. This field of study has been around for centuries.

Understanding language history improves overall language proficiency. By comprehending the origins and development of grammar rules and language structures, learners can apply this knowledge in their speech and writing. It strengthens their grasp of the language's intricacies, leading to more accurate and fluent communication.

2. Synchronic linguistics focuses on studying language at a specific point in time,

while diachronic linguistics studies language through various periods in history. Diachronic linguistics is concerned with language evolution, comparative linguistics, etymology, and language evolution,

while synchronic linguistics focuses on grammar, classification, and arrangement of language features.

3. Modern historical linguistics dates from the late 18th century and grew out of the earlier discipline of philology, the study of ancient texts and documents, which goes back to antiquity.

At first historical linguistics was comparative linguistics and mainly concerned with establishing language families and the reconstruction of prehistoric languages, using the comparative method and internal reconstruction. The focus was on the well-known Indo-European languages, many of which had long written histories. But since then, significant comparative linguistic work has been done on the Uralic

languages, Austronesian languages and various families of Native American languages, among many others. Comparative linguistics is now, however, only a part of a more broadly conceived discipline of historical linguistics. For the Indo-European languages comparative study is now a highly specialised field and most research is being carried out on the subsequent development of these languages, particularly the development of the modern standard varieties.

4. The traditional methods are: comparative-historical, descriptive, contrastive-typological,

the method of linguistic geography, the method of the experimental phonetics. The Comparative- Historical Method. It was founded on the basis of the diachronic comparison. It reflects the material

similarity of generical related languages. It aims at the evidentiation of the common tendencies in the development of the languages of the same origin.

5. The concept of linguistic change

One can distinguish 3 main types of difference in language: geographical, social and temporal.

Linguistic changes imply temporal differences, which become apparent if the same elements or parts of the language are compared at successive historical stages; they are transformations of the same units in time which can be registered as distinct steps in the evolution.

6.The most general causes of language evolution are to be found in the tendencies to improve the language formal apparatuses, e.g. assimilative and simplifying phonetic changes: the consonant

cluster [kn] in know and knee was simplified to [n]. Another group of general internal tendencies aims to preserve the language as a vehicle fit for communication.

7.The results suggest that language first evolved around 50,000–150,000 years ago, which is around the time when modern Homo sapiens evolved. Estimates of this kind are not universally accepted, but jointly considering genetic, archaeological, palaeontological, and much other evidence indicates

that language probably emerged somewhere in sub-Saharan Africa during the Middle Stone Age, roughly contemporaneous with the speciation.

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