Exaptation and Language Change
1st Edition
Published on 15. March 2016
VIII, 401 pages
978-90-272-6747-4 (ISBN)
Description
This volume is the first collection of papers that is exclusively dedicated to the concept of exaptation, a notion from evolutionary biology that was famously introduced into linguistics by Roger Lass in 1990. The past quarter-century has seen a heated debate on the properties of linguistic exaptation, its demarcation from other processes of linguistic change, and indeed the question of whether it is a useful concept in historical linguistics at all. The contributions in the present volume reflect these diverging points of view. Along with a comprehensive introduction, covering the history of the notion of exaptation from its conception in the field of biology to its adoption in linguistics, the book offers extensive discussion of the concept from various theoretical perspectives, detailed case studies as well as critical reviews of some stock examples. The book will be of interest to scholars working in the fields of evolutionary linguistics, historical linguistics, and the history of linguistics.
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Muriel Norde | Freek Van de Velde
Exaptation and Language Change
Book
02/2016
John Benjamins Publishing Co
€104.94
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Content
- Intro
- EXAPTATION AND LANGUAGE CHANGE
- Editorial page
- Title page
- LCC data
- Table of contents
- Preface
- Exaptation: Taking stock of a controversial notion in linguistics
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Exaptation in evolutionary biology
- 3. Exaptation in linguistics
- 4. (Alleged) properties of exaptation
- 5. Conclusion
- References
- Being exacting about exapting: An exaptation omnibus
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Sanskrit reduplication
- 3. An English temporal neologism
- 4. Another relevant English neologism
- 5. Towards a conclusion - Some salient observations
- 6. Conclusion - Reexamining the key questions
- References
- Co-opting exaptation in a theory of language change
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Adaptation and exaptation in an evolutionary approach
- 3. The role of adaptation in language change
- 4. Exaptation as the counterpart of adaptation
- 5. Conclusion
- References
- Exaptation in Japanese and beyond
- 1. Introduction - exaptation vis-à-vis grammaticalization
- 2. Regular course of grammaticalization in Japanese
- 3. Exaptation in Japanese
- 4. Summary and generalizations
- 5. The larger picture
- Abbreviations
- References
- Functional changes and (meta-)linguistic evolution
- 1. Linguistic metalanguage
- 2. How 'grammaticalization' came to be what it is
- 3. How grammaticalization and grammaticalization (do not) connect with each other
- 4. Formal and functional changes
- 5. Functional changes and their names
- 6. How to motivate 'exaptation'
- 7. Conclusion
- References
- Exaptation from the perspective of construction morphology
- 1. Introduction
- 2. The frameworks: Constructional approaches to morphological change, with special reference to exap
- 3. Examples of exaptation
- 4. Concluding remarks
- Old Swedish sources
- References
- Exaptation and degrammaticalization within an acquisition-based model of abductive reanalysis
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Definitional issues
- 3. Degrammaticalization "something" & "thing"
- 4. Exaptation of the English was-were distinction
- 5. Is all degrammaticalization and exaptation due to obsolescence?
- 6. Discussion and conclusion
- Texts cited
- References
- Allogenous exaptation
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Allogenous exaptation
- 3. Pathways of allogenous exaptation
- 4. Why exaptation is different
- 5. Concluding remarks
- Abbreviations
- References
- How functionless is junk, and how useful is exaptation? Probing the -i/esc- morpheme
- 1. Introduction and outline
- 2. The -i/esc- morpheme as a prototypical case of exaptation?
- 3. Problems with an account in terms of exaptation
- 4. If not exaptation, what else?
- 5. Back to exaptation and the -i/esc- morpheme: A dead end?
- 6. Discussion: (re)|(de)|fining exaptation
- References
- The history of nominative -er in Danish and Swedish. A case of exaptation?
- 1. Introduction
- 2. The textually motivated development of the case form -er
- 3. The textual function in the dialect of Old Scanian
- 4. Additional evidence for a textually motivated function of nominative
- 5. The expansion of the adjectival -er suffix
- 6. Same but different
- 7. Exaptation?
- 8. Conclusion
- Sources and references
- Is the development of linking elements in German a case of exaptation?
- 1. Introduction
- 2. What is exaptation?
- 3. Linking elements out of junk?
- 4. Linking elements from inflectional suffixes
- 5. The development of linking elements - an exaptation?
- 6. Summary
- References
- Exploring and recycling: Topichood and the evolution of Ibero-romance articles
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Brazilian Portuguese: 'Systemstörung' followed by exaptation
- 3. Recycling the Spanish definite article
- 4. Exploring and recycling: Article exaptation(s) in Portuguese and Spanish
- 5. Conclusion
- References
- Exaptation and adaptation: Two historical routes to final particles in Japanese
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Japanese final particles and their development from conjunctions
- 3. Final-particle development as linguistic exaptation and adaptation
- 4. Why exaptation is necessary for linguistic studies
- 5. Conclusion
- References
- Language index
- Subject index
