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On megalocomparison

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 March 2026

James A. Matisoff
James A. Matisoff*
Affiliation:
University of California, Berkeley
*
Department of Linguistics University of California Berkeley, CA 94720
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Extract

1. Joseph H. Greenberg's Language in the Americas (LIA; 1987) has been greeted with dismay by many specialists in Amerindian linguistics1 (cf. Chafe 1987, Campbell 1988, Adelaar 1989), and defended by the author in a reply to Campbell in Language 65.1 (1989).

Information

Type
Discussion Note
Information
Language , Volume 66 , Issue 1 , March 1990 , pp. 106 - 120
Copyright
Copyright © 1990 by the Linguistic Society of America

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Footnotes

*

[Editor's note: Because of the importance to historical linguistics of the issues raised by Joseph Greenberg, his supporters, and his critics, the editor decided to solicit a discussion of these issues by a scholar whose qualifications included extensive experience in comparative linguistic research and a presumed lack of prior bias either for or against Greenberg's views. The following essay is the result.]

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