On Explaining Language Change

by Roger Lass

Roger Lass is concerned about the nature of argumentation within linguistics and the status of its data and theoretical constructs. Through an examination of standard strategies of explanation in historical linguistics (particularly of phonological change), in the light of past approaches to scientific epistemology, Dr Lass convincingly demonstrates that attempts to model explanations of linguistic change on those of the physical sciences are failures both in practice and in principle. Linguists can neither assimilate their discipline crudely to the natural or the other human sciences nor, at the other extreme, shelter behind the notion of a private self-validating paradigm. Although Dr Lass outlines some tentative paths towards an alternative epistemology, his main concern is that linguists should confront the philosophical implications of their subject, and he raises questions which both linguists and philosophers will need to consider.

200 pages, Hardcover

First published March 13, 1980

About the author

Roger Lass (born January 1, 1937) is a historical linguist.

He earned his PhD from Yale University in 1965 in Medieval English Language and Literature, and subsequently worked at Indiana University (1964–1971), the University of Edinburgh (1972–1982), and the University of Cape Town (1983–2002).

He has done extensive work in the history of English, the motivation of sound change, and the history of linguistics. He was made an honorary professorial fellow at Edinburgh in 2014.

He was the editor of the third volume of The Cambridge History of the English Language.

Reviews

[Rhomboid Goatcabin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is not an introductory level book. It is not even really a linguistics book (though it is intended for linguists).
Lass presupposes quite a bit of philosophy (of science), as well as knowledge of implicatures, predicate logics and what "T.G. grammar" is. His use of lengthy untranslated (and often incorrectly spelled!) German quotes as well as unnecessary German and Latin quips is also rather infuriating at times.
What the author does, however, offer is a thorough and methodical criticism of the notion of "explanation" in historical linguistics and of what linguists do day by day. For the casual reader, or even most professional linguists, it is simply too detailed and philosophical to be of much interest or use, as Lass progresses down endlessly complex pathways of the mind only to arrive at what is essentially common-sense among serious researchers.
But for those who will suffer it, On Explaining Language Change is a novel exploration of (historical) linguistic method in conjuncture with natural sciences and philosophy.