Language Change
Progress or Decay?
3rd Edition
Published on 4. January 2001
Book
Hardback
324 pages
978-0-521-79155-7 (ISBN)
Description
This is a lucid and up-to-date overview of language change. It discusses where our evidence about language change comes from, how and why changes happen, and how languages begin and end. It considers both changes which occurred long ago, and those currently in progress. It does this within the framework of one central question - is language change a symptom of progress or decay? It concludes that language is neither progressing nor decaying, but that an understanding of the factors surrounding change is essential for anyone concerned about language alteration. For this substantially revised third edition, Jean Aitchison has included two new chapters on change of meaning and grammaticalization. Sections on new methods of reconstruction and ongoing chain shifts in Britain and America have also been added as well as over 150 new references. The work remains non-technical in style and accessible to readers with no previous knowledge of linguistics.
Reviews / Votes
'The book is a very good and readable introduction to the discipline of historical linguistics and covers a very large number of questions.' The LinguistMore details
Series
Edition
3rd Revised edition
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
College/higher education
Edition type
Revised edition
Illustrations
17 Tables, unspecified; 25 Line drawings, unspecified
Dimensions
Height: 205 mm
Width: 135 mm
Thickness: 26 mm
Weight
472 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-521-79155-7 (9780521791557)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
New editions
Book
12/2012
4th Edition
Cambridge University Press
€125.20
Shipment within 15-20 days
Additional editions
E-Book
01/2005
3rd Edition
Cambridge University Press
€26.49
Available for download
Person
Content
Part I. Preliminaries: 1. The ever-whirling wheel: the inevitability of change; 2. Collecting up clues: piecing together the evidence; 3. Charting the changes: studying changes in progress; Part II. Transition: 4. Spreading the word: from person to person; 5. Conflicting loyalties: opposing social pressures; 6. Catching on and taking off: how sound changes spread through a language; 7. Caught in the web: how syntactic changes work through a language; 8. The wheels of language: grammaticalization; 9. Slip slidin' away: change of meaning; Part III: 10. The reason why: sociolinguistic causes of change; 11. Doing what comes naturally: inherent causes of language change; 12. Repairing the patterns: therapeutic changes; 13. The Mad Hatter's tea-party: chain reaction changes; Part IV: 14. Development and breakdown: child language and language disorders; 15. Language birth: how languages begin; 16. Language death: how languages end; 17. Progress or decay?: assessing the situation.