Linguistic Universals And Language Change

Description:
This book looks at the relationship between linguistic universals and language change. Reflecting the resurgence of work in both fields over the last two decades, it addresses two related issues of central importance in linguistics: the balance between synchronic and diachronic factors in accounting for universals of linguistic structure, and the means of distinguishing genuine aspects of a universal human cognitive capacity for language from regularities that may be traced to extraneous origins. The volume brings together specially commissioned work by leading scholars, including prominent representatives of generative and functional linguistics. It examines rival explanations for linguistic universals and assesses the effectiveness of competing models of language change. The authors investigate patterns and processes of grammatical and lexical change across a wide range of languages; they consider the degree to which common characteristics condition processes of change in related languages; and examine how far differences in linguistic outcomes may be explained by cultural or external factors. This book will interest the wide range of scholars in linguistics and related fields concerned with language change, historical linguistics, linguistic typology and universals, and the nature of the human language faculty

Review:
...rich insightful theoretical interpretation, along with extensive examination of data and sophisticated statistical analysis. It is also cleverly organized and rigorously edited... Linguistic Universals and Language Change is undoubtedly required reading for anyone interested in linguistic typology and universals, language change and historical linguistics. Susan Lixia Cheng, Linguistics

Table of Contents:
1. Introduction; PART I UNIVERSALS AND CHANGE: GENERAL PERSPECTIVES; 2. Universals Constrain Change; Change Results in Typological Generalizations; 3. On the Explanation of Typologically Unusual Structures; PART II PHONOLOGICAL UNIVERSALS: VARIATION, CHANGE, AND STRUCTURE; 4. Consonant Epenthesis: Natural and Unnatural Histories; 5. Formal Universals as Emergent Phenomena: The Origins of Structure Preservation; PART III MORPHOLOGICAL RELATIONSHIPS: THE SHAPE OF PARADIGMS; 6. Paradigmatic Uniformity and Markedness; 7. Explaining Universal Tendencies and Language Particulars in Analogical Change; PART IV MORPHOSYNTACTIC PATTERNS: THE FORM OF GRAMMATICAL MARKERS; 8. Creating Economical Morphosyntactic Patterns in Language Change; 9. On the Explanatory Value of Grammaticalization; PART V PHRASE STRUCTURE: MODELLING THE DEVELOPMENT OF SYNTACTIC CONSTRUCTIONS; 10. The Classification of Constituent Order Generalizations and Diachronic Explanation; 11. Emergent Serialization in English: Pragmatics and Typology; PART VI CONCLUSION; 12. Universals and Diachrony: Some Observations; References; Index