Descriptive and Comparative Linguistics: A Critical Introduction

The immense output in modern linguistics with its ferment of new ideas and successive revolutions and counter-revolutions requires that an introduction should be 'critical', a delicate task in which Professor Palmer has admirably succeeded. While descriptive linguistics has overshadowed comparative linguistics over the last forty years, the great majority of student linguists are still 'philologists' engaged in the study of texts. Hence, there is a current need for an introduction which gives full weight to the comparative and historical aspects.