8. On the Methods of Internal Reconstruction

Abstract

The goal of linguistic reconstruction is to establish the relative chronology of prehistoric stages and the changes immediately preceding the most archaic data. Methods of internal reconstruction have been applied in an increasing degree, more or less consciously and explicitly, by neo-grammarians. The status of linguistics as an autonomous science, independent of experimental phonetics, psychology, cultural anthropology, and so on, postulated by de Saussure, has become a fact not only in descriptive but also in historical linguistics. In morphology important procedures of structural linguistics must be respected in order to arrive at a correct evaluation of the forms and of their changes. The most reliable implements of internal reconstruction in morphology are certain universals governing the evolution of morphemes, universals whose existence must be recognized because of the ever increasing empirical evidence. Keywords:historical linguistics; internal reconstruction; morphemes; relative chronology