Complete the account of the comparative method.
Jones proposed in ______ that Sanskrit, Greek and Latin descended from a common source. The method that followed relies on ______ sound correspondences rather than on resemblance. The Neogrammarians held that sound change is ______, and ______ Law explained a class of apparent exceptions to Grimm's.
Word bank: 1786 · regular · exceptionless · Verner's · 1876 · Saussure's
Hints
- The date is in the late eighteenth century.
- The law that rescued the exceptionless claim is named after a Dane.
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Jones proposed in 1786 that Sanskrit, Greek and Latin descended from a common source. The method that followed relies on regular sound correspondences rather than on resemblance. The Neogrammarians held that sound change is exceptionless, and Verner's Law explained a class of apparent exceptions to Grimm's.
Verner's Law is the hinge of this story: a hypothesis that looked refuted by a mass of exceptions was saved by finding the further conditioning factor, the position of the original accent, which is what turned exceptionlessness from a slogan into a working method.
Practise A History of Linguistics
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More questions on A History of Linguistics
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