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Discovering History through Language: Papers in honor of Malcolm Ross. Edited by Bethwyn Evans

The title of this book is well chosen to capture a central concern of comparativehistorical linguistics in the Pacific and Southeast Asian areas, and to honor a scholar who represents the apogee of the enterprise. Malcolm Ross’ dissertation (1988) sought to integrate principles of genetic and areal linguistics while classifying over 200 Melanesian languages, reconstructing lexical and grammatical features, identifying subgroups (over 20), and presenting selected historical phonologies. Terminology and concepts especially associated with Ross’ career include: metatypy, esoterogeny, innovation-defined vs. innovation-linked subgrouping methodology, and the importance of comparative grammatical evidence — especially pronominal paradigms — for purposes of language classification, with particular emphasis on Austronesian and Papuan languages. The book features a full-page color photograph of the honoree; a 13-page bibliography of his published works to date; an editor’s Introduction detailing his early intellectual history, his reasons for becoming a linguist, and his major contributions to the field; and 22 original papers arranged in two parts: Historical Relationships Amongst Languages and Historical Development of Languages Across Time. The geographical coverage includes 15 chapters on Austronesian languages, four on Papuan languages, and one each on Australian, Mon-Khmer, and Slavic languages. Within each section the chapters appear in alphabetical order by author.