Campbell Lyle, Poser William J. Language Classification. History and Method

Cambridge University Press, 2008. — 536 p.How are relationships established among the world’s languages? This is one of the most topical and most controversial questions in contemporary linguistics. The central aims of the book are to answer this question, to cut through the controversies, and to contribute to research in distant genetic relationships. In doing this the authors show how the methods have been employed, revealing which methods, techniques, and strategies have proven successful and which ones have proven ineffective. The book seeks to determine how particular language families were established and offers an evaluation of several of the most prominent and more controversial proposals of distant genetic relationship (such as Amerind, Nostratic, Eurasiatic, Proto-World, and others). Finally,
the authors make recommendations for practice in future research. This book will contribute significantly to understanding language classification in general.'In summary, our intention in this book is to place the methodology for investigating possible cases of distantly related languages on firm footing and to evaluate numerous claims relevant to proposed but as yet undemonstrated remote relationships.
The overall result, we hope, will constitute a significant contribution to linguistic classification in general.' (page 12)