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This book investigates a large range of changes and their motivations in all parts of the grammar and lexicon. The core argument is that, in the absence of a Grand Unification Theory in linguistics, a unified account of change is impossible without ignoring the bulk of natural language changes. Changes occur in successive formal grammars. Differences among successive I‐languages constitute a change in the E‐language, but this work rejects the customary high premium on acquisition to the near exclusion of the role of adults and adolescents in the incrementation of change. Many innovations arise from competition in contact accommodation, but contact is only a catalyst. Features determine parametric variation and structures provide evidence (cues) for features. Since changes are typically not macroscalar, this work adopts a (micro)cue theory of parametric variation. The traditional view required a categorical (off/on) value setting. Through multiple binary cuts and different microcues, the new view permits a language to have, for instance, V2 in some structures but not others. With the reduction of UG (Universal Grammar) to a universal inventory of formal features, the once extravagant role of UG has been largely replaced by principles of efficient computation to explain crosslinguistically frequent changes. Additionally, neurolinguists have concluded that some constraints have evolved over time into a multilevel representation in the nervous system. Taking this and structure‐building features into account, this work argues that some changes are grounded in synchronic cognitive constraints, a large number in principles of computation, many in extralinguistic factors, some in processing and functional motivations, and some just accidents of history.

This book investigates a large range of changes and their motivations in all parts of the grammar and lexicon. The core argument is that, in the absence of a Grand Unification Theory in linguistics, a unified account of change is impossible without ignoring the bulk of natural language changes. Changes occur in successive formal grammars. Differences among successive I-languages constitute a change in the E‐language, but this work rejects the customary high premium on acquisition to the near exclusion of the role of adults and adolescents in the incrementation of change. Many innovations arise from competition in contact accommodation, but contact is only a catalyst. Features determine parametric variation and structures provide evidence (cues) for features. Since changes are typically not macroscalar, this work adopts a (micro)cue theory of parametric variation. The traditional view required a categorical (off/on) value setting. Through multiple binary cuts and different microcues, the new view permits a language to have, for instance, V2 in some structures but not others. With the reduction of UG (Universal Grammar) to a universal inventory of formal features, the once extravagant role of UG has been largely replaced by principles of efficient computation to explain crosslinguistically frequent changes. Additionally, neurolinguists have concluded that some constraints have evolved over time into a multilevel representation in the nervous system. Taking this and structure-building features into account, this work argues that some changes are grounded in synchronic cognitive constraints, a large number in principles of computation, many in extralinguistic factors, some in processing and functional motivations, and some just accidents of history.

The book presents a detailed comparative description of the phonological structure of Icelandic and Faroese and discusses problems in their analysis from a fairly broad theoretical perspective. The first part (Chapters 1–3) describes the historical relation between the languages and introduces some issues regarding their phonological analysis. Part II (Chapters 4–7) gives an overview of the segmental inventory of the two sound systems. Part III (Chapters 8–10) presents analyses of the syllable structure of the two languages and systemic relations between subsystems defined for different phonotactic positions. It also treats the rules for the distribution of long and short vowel nuclei. Part IV (Chapters 11–12) describes vocalic and consonantal morphophonemics, discussing the status, in inflectional paradigms and word formation, of umlaut and ablaut alternations and patterns such as those responsible for the distribution of preaspiration. Part V gives an overview of rhythmic relations in words and phrases in the two languages, ending with descriptions of intonational patterns in the two languages.

This volume traces the prehistory of English from Proto-Indo-European, its earliest reconstructable ancestor, to Proto-Germanic, the latest ancestor shared by all the Germanic languages. It begins with a grammatical sketch of Proto-Indo-European, then discusses in detail the linguistic changes — especially in phonology and morphology — that occurred in the development to Proto-Germanic. The final chapter presents a grammatical sketch of Proto-Germanic. This is the first volume of a linguistic history of English. It is written for fellow-linguists who are not specialists in historical linguistics, especially for theoretical linguists. Its primary purpose is to provide accurate information about linguistic changes in an accessible conceptual framework. A secondary purpose is to begin the compilation of a reliable corpus of phonological and morphological changes to improve the empirical basis of the understanding of historical phonology and morphology.

This book considers developments in the study of diachronic linguistics and linguistic theory, including those concerned with the very definition of language change in the biolinguistic framework, parametric change in a minimalist conception of grammar, the tension between the observed gradual nature of language change and the binary nature of parameters, and whether syntactic change can be triggered internally or requires the external stimuli produced by phonological or morphological change or through language contact. It tests their value and applicability by examining syntactic change at different times and in a wide range of languages, including German, Chinese, Dutch, Sanskrit, Egyptian, Norwegian, old Italian, Portuguese, English, the Benue-Kwa languages of Niger-Congo, Catalan, Spanish, and old French. The book is divided into three parts devoted to theoretical issues in historical syntax; external (such as contact and interference) and internal (grammatical) sources of morphosynactic change; and parameter setting and reanalysis.