ABSTRACT
For pedagogical reasons, we distinguish between historical linguistics and descriptive linguistics, as well as sub-branches with special emphases, such as sociolinguistics and psycholinguistics. But the distinctions are artificial, as a survey of the study of language demonstrates. Unless one limits oneself to an ideal form, all languages are changing. Linguistics, then, is properly a historical science, in much the same way as are geology, astronomy and other sciences that observe, describe and explain their object of study. They contrast in this way with chemistry and physics, where many conclusions are observed, described and explained through experimentation. While we are concerned in this chapter with highlights in historical study, we cannot disregard the intimate relationship between historical and descriptive study. In many ways historical study is built on descriptive study. Many of the basic problems in the history of language require detailed description for solution, as we see in the following.
