Opening book details…
Can I read The Rise and Fall of Languages on EtoBox?
The Rise and Fall of Languages by R M W Dixon; Robert Malcolm Ward Dixon is a science book available to read on EtoBox.
What is The Rise and Fall of Languages about?
This book puts forward a different approach to language change, the punctuated equilibrium model. This is based on the premise that during most of the 100,000 or more years that humans have had language, states of equilibrium have existed during which linguistic features diffused across the languages in a given area so that they gradually converged on a common prototype. From time to time, the state of equilibrium would be punctuated, with expansion and split of peoples and of languages, most recently, as a result of European colonisation and the globalisation of communication which are likely to result in the extinction, within the next hundred years, of 90% of the languages currently spoken. Professor Dixon suggests that every linguist should assume a responsibility for documenting some of these languages before they disappear.
Who reads The Rise and Fall of Languages?
It is typically read by self-directed learners exploring a subject in depth.
Common subject areas: history, science, philosophy, social sciences.
- Author
- R M W Dixon; Robert Malcolm Ward Dixon
- Publisher
- Cambridge, U.K. ; New York: Cambridge University Press
- Published
- 1997
- Language
- EN
- ISBN
- 9780521626545
- Category
- science
- Subjects
- Linguistics, Historical Fiction, Language Learning
- Rating
- 3.73 / 5 (40 ratings)
- Updated
- 2026-03-14