Motives for Language Change

Raymond Hickey editor

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Cambridge University Press

Published:4th Mar '10

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Motives for Language Change cover

This book considers the processes involved in language change and how they can be modelled and studied.

The way languages change offers an insight into the nature of language itself. This specially commissioned volume, originally published in 2003, considers the processes involved in language change and how they can be modelled and studied. In it, leading figures from different branches of linguistics re-examine some of the central issues in this field.This specially commissioned volume considers the processes involved in language change and the issues of how they can be modelled and studied. The way languages change offers an insight into the nature of language itself, its internal organisation, and how it is acquired and used. Accordingly, the phenomenon of language change has been approached from a variety of perspectives by linguists of many different orientations. This book, originally published in 2003, brings together an international team of leading figures from different areas of linguistics to re-examine some of the central issues in this field and also to discuss new proposals. The volume is arranged into sections, including grammaticalisation, the typological perspective, the social context of language change and contact-based explanations. It seeks to cover the subject as a whole, bearing in mind its relevance for the general analysis of language, and will appeal to a broad international readership.

Review of the hardback: 'Apart from providing pleasant reading for older scholars, this well-edited volume contains a great deal of material that can be used in advanced studies and researcher training in historical linguistics.' Journal of Sociolinguistics
Review of the hardback: ' … the papers are of uniformly high quality, and some of them are absolutely first-rate. A number of the contributions are also eminently suitable for use in advanced courses on historical linguistics. This book is a worthy tribute to a distinguished scholar.' CJL/RCL

ISBN: 9780521135245

Dimensions: 229mm x 152mm x 17mm

Weight: 440g

300 pages