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http://www.anatomy.usyd.edu.au/danny/book-reviews/h/Rise_Fall.html

     title: The Rise and Fall of Languages
        by: R.M.W. Dixon
 publisher: Cambridge University Press
  subjects: linguistics
     other: 169 pages, bibliography, index

In _The Rise and Fall of Languages_ a prominent linguist takes a broad
look at language change.  Dixon's central thesis is that language change
varies dramatically in rate and is best modelled as a form of "punctuated
equilibrium"; as a result, models of linguistic change developed in one
context are not necessarily applicable elsewhere.  He also addresses
what he sees as the central problems facing his discipline.

Dixon provides an explicit list of his basic assumptions, which are
interesting in their own right.  He begins his argument proper with the
concept of a "linguistic area", a region within which languages share
common features as a result of diffusion.  He offers some tentative
generalisations about which language features (phonological, lexical,
grammatical) are most likely to diffuse, and about the factors that
decide which features are borrowed, where they are borrowed from, and
who borrows them.

Linguistic areas contrast with family trees, the more familiar
classification scheme for languages.  Dixon evaluates the criteria for
constructing family trees and the ways in which analyses often fail
to match the standards set by work on Indo-European.  He criticises
the proposed Niger-Congo language family, glances at the problems of
lexicostatistics and glottochronology, and demolishes the follies of
Nostratic and other such super-families.  (Here he also explores the
consequences of the isolating-agglutinative-fusional cycle for discerning
genetic relationships.)  The reconstruction of family trees faces problems
with proto-languages, with dating, and with the positioning of subgroups.

Turning to modes of language change (and language splitting),
Dixon's central thesis is that linguistic areas result from periods
of equilibrium, while family trees result from punctuation episodes.
Punctuation can be caused by natural events, material innovation,
or political and geographical expansion.  In general punctuation is
associated with aggressive, expanding societies and equilibrium with
small-scale ones (a division very much along the lines of Levi-Strauss'
hot/cold distinction).  This is illustrated with examples from
Austronesia, Australia, and the Americas.  On less firm territory,
Dixon also suggests that the origin of language might be seen as a
punctuation event.

Dixon finishes with some applied linguistics.  He takes a quick glance at
recent history: at invasions and developments in communication technology,
and at language loss and the social and political factors that influence
it.  He goes on to explain why linguistic diversity matters, with a
brief tour of linguistic variation around the world, taking adjective
classes and the marking of subject and object functions as his examples.
Turning to methodological issues within linguistics, Dixon stresses the
importance of fieldwork and attacks the myth that purely theoretical
work is more difficult and more valuable than description and analysis
of languages.  He makes a plea for the documentation of languages before
it is too late and argues for a focus on "Basic Linguistic Theory"
in place of various narrow formalisms.

_The Rise and Fall of Languages_ is an excellent little book, which I
warmly recommend to anyone curious about language change.  It will be
particularly valuable to those in other fields where language change
plays a significant part -- history, archaeology, and anthropology, among
others.  Some background in linguistics would be useful (a reference to
ergativity on page 18 precedes a not entirely straightforward explanation
on page 56, for example), but _The Rise and Fall of Languages_ should be
accessible to pretty much anyone.  Simple family trees and reconstructions
of proto-languages are "sexy", making an effective explanation of their
limitations and of alternative models an important antidote to popular
enthusiasms.

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Disclaimer: I requested and received a review copy of _The Rise and
Fall of Languages_ from Cambridge University Press, but I have no stake,
financial or otherwise, in its success.

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%T	The Rise and Fall of Languages
%A	R.M.W. Dixon
%I	Cambridge University Press
%C	Cambridge
%D	1997
%O	paperback, bibliography, index
%G	ISBN 0-521-62654-4
%P	vi,169pp
%U	http://www.cup.cam.ac.uk/scripts/webbook.asp?isbn=0521626544
%K	linguistics

4 May 1998

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        Copyright (c) 1998 Danny Yee (danny@cs.usyd.edu.au)
        http://www.anatomy.usyd.edu.au/danny/book-reviews/
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