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<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Courier">The Comparative Method is not enough: Innovating Historical Linguistic Methodology (WS @ ICHL27, Santiago de Chile, 18–22 August 2025)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Courier"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Courier">What if historical linguistics had been conceived of not in Germany, but in Chile or Tanzania? The linguistic, socio-historical, and geo-political realities of 19<sup>th</sup>-century Europe
have doubtlessly shaped the assumptions and approach of the Comparative Method as developed by researchers from Bopp to Schleicher. Although consistently employed in essentially this form ever since, already at the end of the 19<sup>th</sup> century, elements
of the method and some of its presuppositions were called into question by Schuchardt (1885) and others. Since then, with the broadening of linguistic horizons beyond ‘classical’ languages, it has become evident that other extra- or paralinguistic factors
also have a significant impact on language change, be they variationist (Chambers & Trudgill 1998), relating to contact (Weinreich 1953; Fishman
<i>et al.</i> 1971; Thomason 2008; Sinnemäki fthc.), or constraining from a typological perspective (Greenberg 1966; Walkden
<i>et al. </i>2023). Even more fundamentally, the traditional comparative method only considers phonological change and does not concern itself with the lexicon, morphology, or syntax.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Courier">While still a useful tool in many cases and from a macroscopic perspective, it is nevertheless clear that the Comparative Method alone is no longer enough to answer the questions that have
emerged recently from these new insights. Rather, the Comparative Method needs to be integrated with a wider, holistic approach that moves away from assuming rigid and ideal regularity, exceptionlessness and universality. This approach more centrally takes
into account multilingual dynamics, in particular of language ecologies outside of Europe and the Global North (Meyer 2023; Marten fthc.). In this way, our conceptualisation of language change is reoriented from a deterministic to a more probabilistic model
that can work with and account for multiple dimensions – contact, sociolinguistics, typology, and uncertainty.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Courier">Since the recent addition of genetic and archaeological data and methods to the consideration of language change (Heggarty
<i>et al.</i> 2023), it is imperative and timely to also re-evaluate the soundness of the basic linguistic methods that are used. This workshop seeks to bring together researchers at any career stage interested in the methodological and epistemological questions
entailed by going beyond the Comparative Method to a more current, holistic understanding of and approach to language change – a New Comparative Method. The following questions serve as guidelines, but other questions on the same subject are very welcome:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<ul style="margin-top:0cm" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Courier">What historical biases need to be considered in order to understand the origins of and issues with the Comparative Method?<o:p></o:p></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Courier">How can contact-induced and non-contact-induced change be modelled? Should the tree analogy be replaced?<o:p></o:p></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Courier">What role do typological constraints play in language change and how can they be integrated into a model thereof?<o:p></o:p></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Courier">What mathematical models are available to test and operationalise such a multifactorial method?<o:p></o:p></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Courier">What does a holistic approach mean for well-established cases where the traditional method is believed to work well (e.g. Indo-European languages)?<o:p></o:p></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Courier">Most fundamentally: what is it that we actually reconstruct? Can we reconstruct phoneme and morpheme inventories, syntax, indeed whole languages – or are we
only doing linguistic ‘algebra’?<o:p></o:p></span></li></ul>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Courier"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Courier"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Courier">References<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Courier">Chambers, J. K. and Trudgill, P. (1998).
<i>Dialectology </i>(2nd edition). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Courier">Fishman, J. A., Cooper, R., and Newman, R. (1971).
<i>Bilingualism in the Barrio</i>. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Courier">Greenberg, J. H. (1966). Some universals of grammar with particular reference to the order of meaningful elements. In Greenberg, J. H. (ed.),
<i>Universals of Language: report of a conference held at Dobbs Ferry, New York, April 13–15</i> (2nd edition). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 73–113.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Courier">Heggarty, P. <i>
et al.</i> (2023) Language trees with sampled ancestors support a hybrid model for the origin of Indo-European languages.
<i>Science </i><b>381</b>,eabg0818(2023).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Courier">Marten, L. (forthcoming). Historical Linguistics and Ubuntu Translanguaging: Towards a model of multilingualism, language change and linguistic convergence in the Bantu Linguistic Area. In
Jadranka Gvozdanović (ed.) <i>Historical Linguistics 2023. Selected papers from the 26th ICHL, Heidelberg, 4–8 September 2023</i>. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Courier">Meyer, R. (2023). Towards a Typology of Contact-Induced Change: Questions, Problems, and the Path Ahead.
<i>Transactions of the Philological Society</i>, 121(3): 336–356.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Courier">Sinnemäki, K.
<i>et al.</i> (forthcoming) A typological approach to language change in contact situations.
</span><i><span lang="DE" style="font-family:Courier">Diachronica.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="DE" style="font-family:Courier">Schuchardt, H. (1885).
<i>Über die Lautgesetze. Gegen die Junggrammatiker</i>. Berlin: Robert Oppenheim.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Courier">Thomason, S. G. (2008). Social and linguistic factors as predictors of contact-induced change.
<i>Journal of Language Contact</i>, 2: 42–56.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Courier">Walkden, G. <i>
et al.</i> (2023) Sociolinguistic Typology Meets Historical Corpus Linguistics. <i>
Transactions of the Philological Society</i>, 121(3): 546–567.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Courier">Weinreich, U. (1953).
<i>Languages in Contact</i>. The Hague: Mouton.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Courier"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Courier">Submission<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Courier">Relevant abstracts of no more than 800 words (excl. references) should be sent to Robin Meyer (robin.meyer@unil.ch) by 21 October 2024 in PDF format.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Courier">Please note that workshops are in most cases restricted to 6 papers; all other papers, if accepted, will be given as part of the ICHL general sessions. Should there be sufficient interest for
an extended workshop (up to 12 papers), we will lobby the local organisers to permit this format.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Courier"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Courier">Workshop website:<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Courier">https://sites.google.com/view/ichl27cm<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Courier"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family:Courier">Organisation:<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Courier">Aicha Belkadi (SOAS University of London)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Courier">Victoria B. Fendel (University of Oxford)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Courier">Hannah Gibson (University of Essex)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Courier">Charlotte Hemmings (University of Oxford)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Courier">Marwan Kilani (Universität Basel)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Courier">Christopher Lucas (SOAS University of London)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Courier">Lutz Marten (SOAS University of London)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="FR-CH" style="font-family:Courier">Robin Meyer (Université de Lausanne)
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Courier">Teresa Poeta (University of Essex)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="FR-CH" style="font-family:Courier">Neige Rochant (Université de Lausanne)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="FR-CH" style="font-family:Courier"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="FR-CH" style="font-family:Courier"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Courier;mso-ligatures:none;mso-fareast-language:EN-GB">___________<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><u><span style="font-family:Courier;color:#0563C1;mso-ligatures:none;mso-fareast-language:EN-GB">Robin MEYER</span></u><span style="font-family:Courier;mso-ligatures:none;mso-fareast-language:EN-GB"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Courier;mso-ligatures:none;mso-fareast-language:EN-GB">Professeur assistant en linguistique diachronique<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Courier;mso-ligatures:none;mso-fareast-language:EN-GB">Directeur, Centre de linguistique et des sciences du langage<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Courier;mso-ligatures:none;mso-fareast-language:EN-GB">Associate Editor, Journal of Indo-European Studies<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Courier;mso-ligatures:none;mso-fareast-language:EN-GB"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Courier;mso-ligatures:none;mso-fareast-language:EN-GB">Université de Lausanne<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Courier;mso-ligatures:none;mso-fareast-language:EN-GB">Section des sciences du langage et de l'information<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Courier;mso-ligatures:none;mso-fareast-language:EN-GB">Anthropole – bureau
</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family:Courier;mso-ligatures:none;mso-fareast-language:EN-GB">3141.3<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:Courier;mso-ligatures:none;mso-fareast-language:EN-GB">CH–1015 Lausanne<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="FR-CH" style="font-family:Courier;mso-ligatures:none">Suisse</span><span lang="FR-CH"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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