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Language Change and Linguistic Theory
Volume I: Approaches, Methodology, and Sound Change, Volume II: Morphological, Syntactic, and Typological Change
D. Gary Miller
912 pages
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234x156mm
978-0-19-959021-6
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Pack
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26 August 2010
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- In-depth examination of changes in all areas of the grammar
- Unique in its combined theoretical and historical coverage
- Many novel analyses
- Historical accounts are thoroughly grounded philologically
This two volume work examines every aspect of language change and two centuries of linguistic approaches towards understanding it. The enterprise opens with a consideration of the nature of language and what constitutes language change. Gary Miller argues that a single overarching theory is insufficient to encompass the protean mix of linguistic, social, political, and cognitive factors involved in linguistic diachrony. He analyses general processes of phonetic, phonological, morphological, and syntactic change, and explores their origins, causes, and effects. To support his analyses, he provides detailed case studies of such phenomena as the Middle English
vowels, the history of English do, and development of the feminine gender in Indo-European. He offers a balanced approach to the effects of first language acquisition, describes general and specific processes including grammaticalization and creolization, and examines the role of differential rates of change in regional and dialectal variation. He reveals that several fundamental concepts in historical linguistics are much older than conventionally assumed. In its comprehensive approach and great linguistic and historical range, this is a contribution of enduring use and value to historical linguistics and linguistic theory.
Volume I examines topics involving change in different components of the grammar from the perspectives of theory, acquisition, variation, and
motivation. Gary Miller investigates traditional concerns, such as variation and lexical diffusion, and considers their impact on contemporary issues. He discusses the interaction of articulatory and perceptual factors, the implications of naturalness for expected changes, and the consequences of alterations of syllable timing for contemporary theory. The volume closes with a description of and motivations for vowel shifts.
In Volume II, the focus turns to morphological and syntactic language changes. By most theoretical accounts, morphology is not autonomous, but interacts with at least three other domains: (i) phonology and perception, (ii) the lexicon / culture, and (iii) syntax. Having addressed the first of these extensively in Volume I, Gary Miller illustrates
the second with the rise of the feminine gender in Indo-European, and the third by documentation of the changes from Latin to Romance in the coding of reflexive, anticausative, middle, and passive. He shows how syntactic change is (micro)parametric and is typically motivated by changes in lexical features, including the numerous shifts from lexical to functional content as well as changes within functional categories. Finally, he considers the genesis of creole inflectional, derivational, and syntactic categories, involving the interaction of contact phenomena with morphological and syntactic change.Readership: Scholars and students interested in how and why languages change, including specialists in the history of
English, Latin, Greek, or Romance.
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D. Gary Miller, Professor Emeritus of Linguistics and Classics, University of Florida
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Volume I: Approaches, Methodology, and Sound Change
1: How Language Change is Investigated
2: Reconstructing Language History
3: Building on the Tradition
4: Analogy and Systematic Repair
5: Motivations of Language Change
6: Natural Processes
7: Inverted Operations
8: Denaturalized Phonetic Processes
9: Tempo and Mora in Phonological Change
10: Vowel Shifts and the Middle English Vowels
Volumme II: Morphological, Syntactic, and Typological Change
1: Word Order and Typology: Core Data
2: Word Order in Theory and Change
3: Grammaticalization
4: Morphological Change
5: The Feminine Gender in Indo-European
6: Phrase Structure and Verb Classes
7: The Mediopassive: Latin to Romance
8: The History of English DO
9: Syntactic Change
10: The Development of Creole Categories
Special Phonetic Symbols
Primary Sources: Texts and Editions
Consolidated References for Volume I and II
Language Index
Subject Index
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The specification in this catalogue, including without limitation price, format, extent, number of illustrations, and month of publication, was as accurate as possible at the time the catalogue was compiled. Occasionally, due to the nature of some contractual restrictions, we are unable to ship a specific product to a particular territory. Jacket images are provisional and liable to change before publication.
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