Routledge Dictionary of Language and Linguistics
In historical linguistics, the study of the diachronic process(es) of change in language elements and language systems (
diachronic linguistics). Language change takes place on all levels of linguistic description: (a) in phonology, depending on conditioning factors, a distinction is drawn between phonetic and phonological change and changes motivated by analogy or by extralinguistic factors ( sound change). (b) In morphology, a distinction is drawn between changes in the inflectional system and changes in word formation. (i) In inflectional morphology, such processes involve the occurrence and classification of morphological categories (e.g. in the development of the Indo-European languages several categories have disappeared: most frequently the dual, but also case, gender, mood, and tense differentiations); on the other hand, the realization of different categories has been retained, for example, by substituting inflected forms for periphrastic forms ( periphrasis). (ii) In word formation, language change concerns above all the change from compositional to derivational regularities ( composition, derivation) as well as the process of back formation. (c) In syntax, language change involves, among other things, regularities in word and phrase order ( word order). In such cases, there is an interrelation between the changes on the individual levels (e.g. the phonological decay of case endings from Old English to Middle English which led to fundamental changes in English morphology and syntax; syncretism) that results in an increase in stricter rules for word and phrase order. (d) In semantics, semantic change and borrowing.
The causes of language change are sought primarily in internal or external conditions, depending on the theoretical viewpoint. Internal conditions for language change are motivated in general by economy, i.e. the tendency towards simplification of the language system. Studies of such linguistic changes refer either (a) to physiological conditions, i.e. to problems of articulatory-phonetic simplification like assimilation, or (b) to functional aspects, i.e. to problems of the functional load or balance of individual expressions in the system with regard to the differentiation of important contrasts or to structural conditions such as the tendency towards symmetric distribution of elements and characteristics in linguistic systems through which empty slots or doubleoccupied positions are leveled out. Among external conditions are interference from foreign (neighboring) languages or from different language varieties within a linguistic community ( bilingualism, language contact, substratum, superstratum), historically conditioned changes in forms of communication, sociological changes, and others. ( also drift, reconstruction, synchrony vs diachrony)
References
Aitchison, J. 1981. Language change: progress or decay? London. (2nd edn Cambridge, 1991.)
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Anderson, S.R. 1988. Morphological change. In F. Newmeyer (ed.), Linguistics: the Cambridge survey. Cambridge. Vol. I, 324–62.
Antilla, R. 1972. An introduction to historical and comparative linguistics. New York.
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Coseriu, E. 1958. Synchronie, Diachronie und Geschichte. Munich.
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Collected papers
Ahlqvist, A. (ed.) 1982. Papers from the fifth International Conference on Historical Linguistics. Amsterdam
Anderson, J.M. and C.Jones (eds) 1974. Historical linguistics, 2 vols. Amsterdam.
Baldi, P. and R.N.Werth (eds) 1978. Readings in historical phonology. University Park, PA.
Blount, B. and G.M.Sanches (ed.) 1977. Saciocultural dimensions of language change. New York.
Cherubim, D. (ed.) 1975. Sprachwandel: Reader zur diachronischen Sprachwissenschaft. Berlin.
Fisiak, J. (ed.) 1978. Recent developments in historical linguistics. The Hague.
——(ed.) 1980. Historical morphology. The Hague.
——(ed.) 1984. Historical syntax. The Hague.
Keiler, A.R. (ed.) 1972. A reader in historical and comparative linguistics. New York.
Lehmann, W.P. and Y.Malkiel (eds) 1982. Perspectives on historical linguistics. Amsterdam.
Li, C.N. (ed.) 1975. Word order and word order change. Austin, TX.
——(ed.) 1977. Mechanisms of syntactic change. Austin. TX.
Lüdtke, H. (ed.) 1980. Kommunikationstheoretische Grundlagen des Sprachwandels. Berlin.
Rauch, I. and G.F.Carr (eds) 1983. Language change. Bloomington. IN.
Stockwell, R. and R.MacAulay (eds) 1972. Histor-ical linguistics and generative theory. Bloomington. IN.
Trask, R.L. 1994. Language change. London.
Traugott, E.C. et al. (eds) 1980. Papers from the fourth International Conference on Historical Linguistics. Amsterdam.
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