Language Change
Progress or Decay?

An introduction to language change. This updated edition remains non-technical and accessible to readers with no previous knowledge of linguistics.

Jean Aitchison (Author)

9781107678927, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 20 December 2012

308 pages, 37 b/w illus. 2 tables
19.8 x 12.9 x 1.5 cm, 0.37 kg

'… captivating and highly readable … linguistic phenomena are lucidly explained, often through the use of analogy, graphics and clear examples taken from a range of different languages. A new and welcome addition to this fourth edition are the questions placed at the end of the book - three for each chapter - which help readers to test their understanding of the main points.' Ilse Wischer, translated from Zeitschrift für Dialektologie und Linguistik

How and why do languages change? Where does the evidence of language change come from? How do languages begin and end? This introduction to language change explores these and other questions, considering changes through time. The central theme of this book is whether language change is a symptom of progress or decay. This book will show you why it is neither, and that understanding the factors surrounding how language change occurs is essential to understanding why it happens. This updated edition remains non-technical and accessible to readers with no previous knowledge of linguistics.

Part I. Preliminaries: 1. The ever-whirling wheel
2. Collecting up clues
3. Charting the changes
Part II. Transition: 4. Spreading the word
5. Conflicting loyalties
6. Catching on and taking off
7. Caught in the web
8. The wheels of language
9. Spinning away
Part III. Causation: 10. The reason why
11. Doing what comes naturally
12. Repairing the patterns
13. Pushing and pulling
Part IV. Beginnings and Endings: 14. Language birth
15. Language death
16. Progress or decay?

Subject Areas: Historical & comparative linguistics [CFF], Linguistics [CF], Language: history & general works [CBX]