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The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Diachronic and Historical Linguistics, 5 Volume Set

Adam Ledgeway (Edited by), Ledgeway (Author), Edith Aldridge (Edited by), Anne Breitbarth (Edited by), Katalin E Kiss (Edited by), Joseph Salmons (Edited by), Alexandra Simonenko (Edited by), Martin Everaert (Series edited by), Henk Van Riemsdijk (Series edited by)

9781119898016, Wiley

Hardback, published 9 April 2026

3536 pages
1 x 1 x 1 cm, 0.454 kg

The first multi-volume reference work dedicated entirely to the field of diachronic linguistics

The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Diachronic and Historical Linguistics is a state-of-the-art resource that explores the mechanisms underlying linguistic evolution. Bridging the gap between theoretical models and empirical research, this comprehensive work connects linguistics with allied disciplines such as psychology, anthropology, sociology, and biology, and provides an enriched understanding of how language interacts with human society and cognition. Contributions from more than 150 leading scholars cover an unparalleled range of key topics, from phonetics and syntax to semantics, pragmatics, and beyond.

Spanning five volumes, the Companion combines cutting-edge theoretical perspectives with detailed case studies from a variety of language families, including underrepresented and non-verbal languages, such as sign languages. By examining the interaction of linguistic systems with societal and environmental factors, this landmark work offers a robust framework for investigating the dynamics of language variation and historical development.

Synthesizing decades of groundbreaking research while paving the way for new discoveries, The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Diachronic and Historical Linguistics:

  • Presents insights from diverse theoretical frameworks and methodologies in one comprehensive collection
  • Features in-depth analyses of diverse languages and language families, including lesser-studied languages
  • Explores the dynamics of language change within and across speakers, communities, and societies
  • Highlights the role of computational tools and statistical methods in advancing diachronic research
  • Establishes connections with related fields to foster interdisciplinary collaboration

The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Diachronic and Historical Linguistics is ideal for advanced undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate students in linguistics, particularly those taking courses on diachronic linguistics, historical linguistics, and language change. It is an indispensable reference for researchers and practitioners in fields intersecting with language evolution, including academic and professional linguists, philologists, and anthropologists engaged in exploring the complexities of language development and change.

Thematic List of Contents xiii

Editors xvii

Contributors xix

Preface xxix

Volume I

Diachronic Linguistics: An Overview 1
Joseph Salmons

Abruptness in Language Change 19
Graeme Trousdale

Acoustic-Perceptual Factors in the Actuation of Sound Change 37
James Kirby and Jonathan Harrington

Acquisition and Learnability 75
Ailis Cournane

Alignment Change 95
Edith Aldridge

Analogy and Extension 123
David Fertig

Approaches to the Comparative Linguistics of Sign Languages 143
Justin M. Power and Keiko Sagara

Argument Structure 165
Leonid Kulikov

Aspectual Changes: Aktionsart versus Perfectivity 199
Amalia Moser

Assimilation and Dissimilation Processes in Sound Change 225
Joachim Kokkelmans and Eirini Apostolopoulou

At the Interfaces: Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Sources of Phonological Change 251
Holly Kennard and Aditi Lahiri

Autonomy of Morphology: Paradigmatic Structure in Diachrony 275
Borja Herce

(Basic) Word Order 293
Lieven Danckaert

Borrowing of Linguistic Rules 317
Metin Ba˘grıacık

Causality at the Interfaces: Non-Syntactic Triggers of Syntactic Change 343
Tara Struik

Chain Shifts 369
Monica Nesbitt and Samson Lotven

Change in Contrastive Hierarchies 391
Will Oxford

Changes across the Lifespan 409
Isabelle Buchstaller and James Grama

Changes from Below and from Above 437
Lauren Hall-Lew

Changing Patterns of Deixis in the Nominal Domain 455
Alexandra Simonenko

Changing Patterns of Deixis in the Verbal Domain 485
Mario Squartini

Code-Switching 505
Ad Backus

Comparative Method and Comparative Reconstruction 527
Koen Bostoen and Martine Robbeets

Complex Predicate Formation 551
Veronika Heged˝us

Compounding 571
Angela Ralli

Computational Models of Semantic Change 595
Nina Tahmasebi, Andrey Kutuzov, Haim Dubossarsky, and Mario Giulianelli

Conditioning 629
Pavel Iosad

Volume II

Configurationality: Changing Patterns of Morphology and Syntax 657
Adam Ledgeway

Contact and Borrowing 691
Anthony Grant

Convergence and Linguistic Areas 713
Victor A. Friedman and Brian D. Joseph

Counting Systems 729
Brigitte L.M. Bauer

Cyclicity 755
John W.W. Powell and Elly van Gelderen

(De)Grammaticalization 783
Muriel Norde

Deletion (aphaeresis, syncope, apocope) 813
Daniel Recasens

Derivation 835
Carola Trips and Charles Yang

Diachronic Creole Syntax: Lessons from Cabo Verdean, Haitian, and Sranan 863
Marlyse Baptista and Ariana Bancu

Diachronic Patterns of Affixation 889
Judith Meinschaefer

Diachronic Typological Universals 917
Shelece Easterday

Diachrony and the Bases of Synchronic Regularity 953
Stephen R. Anderson

Diachrony of Morphological Strategies 973
Ivan Igartua

Dialectology 1001
Tommaso Balsemin, Emanuela Sanfelici, and Cecilia Poletto

Directionality 1033
Katalin E. Kiss

Economy 1061
Anna Roussou

Ellipsis 1083
Remus Gergel and Sonia Cyrino

The Emergence of Determiners across Time 1115
Anne Carlier

Endogeny and Exogeny 1169
Marianne Mithun

Evolution of the Structural Encoding of Discourse Functions 1195
Augustin Speyer

Exaptation and Related Processes of Language Change 1223
Ilse Wischer

Family Tree Model 1245
Thomas Pellard, Robin J. Ryder, and Guillaume Jacques

Folk Etymology and Contamination 1279
Martin Maiden

Frequency 1299
Dirk Pijpops and Eva Zehentner

Genre Variation and Change across Registers of Writing 1327
Irma Taavitsainen, Matylda Włodarczyk, and Jukka Tyrkko

Grammar Competition and Variational Learning 1355
Joel Wallenberg, Henri Kauhanen, George Walkden, and Caroline Heycock

Volume III

Hypothetical Routes from Parataxis to Hypotaxis 1387
Katrin Axel-Tober and Helmut Weis

Illocutionary Force: Encoding Utterance Meaning and Function through Time 1415
Roland Hinterholzl and Nicola Munaro

Indirect Language Contact and Pragmatic Borrowing 1443
Elizabeth Peterson

Inertia and Anti-Inertia Theories of Syntactic Change 1461
Chris H. Reintges

Inflectional Change and Morphological Theory 1493
Nigel Vincent

Information Structure in Diachronic Change 1511
Marco Coniglio and Esther Rinke

Insertion (prosthesis, epenthesis) 1541
Nancy Hall

On Language Acquisition as the Locus of Reanalysis 1567
Esther Rinke, Jurgen M. Meisel, and Georg A. Kaiser

Language Shift, Obsolescence, and Death 1591
Joshua R. Brown and Michael T. Putnam

Lenition and Fortition: Environments, Processes, and Representations 1609
Andras Cser

Lexical Change and Stability 1631
Steven N. Dworkin and Philip Durkin

Lexical Frequency and Diffusion 1649
Vsevolod Kapatsinski

Lexicalization 1673
Alain Peyraube

Life Cycle of Phonological Processes 1693
Michael Ramsammy

Loss and Leveling 1717
Joshua Bousquette

Markedness, Naturalness, and Complexity 1739
Nikolaus Ritt

Mechanisms of Change in Lexical Semantics 1761
Karlien Franco

Mergers and Splits 1781
Sarah Babinski

Metathesis 1803
Ander Egurtzegi

Mixed Languages 1827
Jesse Stewart

Modality and Mood 1855
Francesca Dell’Oro

Morphing Creole Languages 1887
Fabiola Henri and Jose Carlos Antonio Perez Vargas

Morphological Agreement 1913
Paolo Milizia

Morphological Reanalysis: Recycling Old Form to New Function 1939
Laura A. Janda

Morphological Universals and Tendencies 1963
Dunstan Brown

Morphologization (from phonology and syntax) and Demorphologization 1991
Livio Gaeta

Morphology and Syntax in Competition: The Place of Inflectional Periphrasis 2021
Andrew Spencer and Gergana Popova

Negation: Diachronic Developments 2045
M.Teresa Espinal and Susagna Tubau

Non-Morphological Sources and Triggers of Morphological Change 2077
Ekaterina Georgieva and Irina Burukina

Volume IV

Onomasiological Variation: How We Name Extralinguistic Reality 2095
Jesus Fernandez Dominguez

The Penthouse Principle Revisited 2115
Sam Wolfe

Periodization 2147
John Charles Smith

Phonological Constraints and Conditioning in Diachronic Morphology 2167
Yuni Kim and Mary Paster

Phonological Universals in Sound Change 2189
David Natvig

Pragmatic Strengthening and Conventionalized Implicature 2211
Regine Eckardt

Processing Efficiency 2231
Richard Futrell

Productivity 2265
Johanna Barðdal, Renata Enghels, Quentin Feltgen, Sven Van Hulle, and Peter Lauwers

Propagation of Change: Computational Models 2293
Henri Kauhanen

Prosodic Changes and Metrical Restructuring: Syllables, Feet, and Prosodic Templates 2317
Laura Catharine Smith

Proto-Languages 2351
Gerd Carling and Filip Larsson

Quantification 2379
Tamas Halm

Reanalysis and Restructuring 2417
Helmut Weis

Reconstruction without Broad Comparison: Internal Reconstruction 2437
Jose Ignacio Hualde

Regularity and Exceptions 2459
Peter Rebrus

Relative Clauses 2489
Eva Dekany

Revisiting the Five Foundational Problems of Weinreich, Labov, and Herzog (1968) 2523
Anne Breitbarth

Rise and Fall of Case: When Syntax Meets Morphology 2549
Nikolaos Lavidas and Eleni Plakoutsi

Salience 2589
Peter Racz

Semantic Universals 2605
Chiara Gianollo

Semasiological Variation 2629
Dirk Geeraerts

Social Conditioning, Differentiation, and Linguistic Valuation 2645
Jon Forrest

Sociocultural Drivers of Lexical Innovation 2667
Terttu Nevalainen and Tanja Saily

Sociolinguistic Typology: Complexification and Simplification 2687
Christian Bentz and Annemarie Verkerk

Sources of Nominal Number Markers 2717
Patricia Cabredo Hofherr

Volume V

Standardization 2755
Gijsbert Rutten

Subgrouping 2777
Daniel Kaufman

Subjectification and Intersubjectification 2813
Elizabeth Closs Traugott, Katsunobu Izutsu, and Mitsuko Narita Izutsu

Suppletion 2837
Ljuba Veselinova

Syncretism 2889
Louise Esher

Syntactic Changes in Nominal Agreement 2913
Giampaolo Salvi

Syntactic Changes in Verbal Agreement 2945
Charlotte Hemmings, Hannah Gibson, and Lutz Marten

Syntactic Methods for Language Phylogenies 2971
Cristina Guardiano and Giuseppe Longobardi

Syntactic Reanalysis 3011
Marieke Meelen

Syntagmatic and Paradigmatic Changes in Meaning 3037
Josh Phillips and Martin Fuchs

Tense, Aspect, and Mood Systems 3059
Barbara Meisterernst

Tonogenesis and the Evolution of Tone Systems 3093
Marc Brunelle and James Kirby

Transmission and Diffusion of Syntactic Change 3129
David Willis

Transparency 3157
Eric Haeberli

Typology of Prosodic Organization 3177
Martin Kummel

Uniformitarianism 3195
Claire Bowern

Variation and Change in Language Revitalization 3217
Itxaso Rodriguez-Ordonez and Jonathan R. Kasstan

Voice Alternations in Diachrony 3239
Laura Grestenberger and Iris Tanza-Kamil

Wave Model 3289
Jamin Pelkey and Siva Kalyan

Word-Order Universals: A Formal Approach 3315
Ian Roberts

Working with Dead Languages 3337
James Clackson and Nathan W. Hill

Working with Language Isolates 3353
Patience Epps and Hein van der Voort

Writing Systems 3377
William G. Boltz

Index 3401

Subject Areas: Language: reference & general [CB]
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