Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface and acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Three views of sound change
- 3 Sound change 2: the implementation problem
- 4 Morphological change
- 5 Syntactic change 1: the Transparency Principle
- 6 Word order change and grammaticalisation: language change and general laws
- 7 Semantic and lexical change
- 8 Language contact
- 9 Linguistic variation
- 10 Pidgins and Creoles
- 11 Language death
- 12 Linguistic evolution?
- Bibliography
- Index
Preface and acknowledgements
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface and acknowledgements
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Three views of sound change
- 3 Sound change 2: the implementation problem
- 4 Morphological change
- 5 Syntactic change 1: the Transparency Principle
- 6 Word order change and grammaticalisation: language change and general laws
- 7 Semantic and lexical change
- 8 Language contact
- 9 Linguistic variation
- 10 Pidgins and Creoles
- 11 Language death
- 12 Linguistic evolution?
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
This book is based on a one-term undergraduate course taught at the University of Cambridge. It is intended to be usable without prior exposure to historical linguistics, and the majority of general linguistic terms will also be defined as we go along. However, readers with no knowledge at all of general linguistics may find it helpful from time to time to consult Crystal (1987), Lyons (1981) and Yule (1988), for general background points; Burton-Roberts (1986) for syntax; Ladefoged (1982) for phonetics; and Katamba (1989) for phonology.
Books may end up with one name on the cover, but are by their nature cooperative enterprises, so that I have a great many people to thank. Members of the Department of Linguistics, and numerous colleagues elsewhere, have provided advice and encouragement. Various Fellows of Selwyn College have cheerfully submitted to tests designed to work out where they put their [r]s, and have enthusiastically gone on neologism hunts for me. Sections of the text have been road-tested on three years' worth of Cambridge undergraduates and research students, and my special thanks go to James Dudley-Smith, Adam Isaacs, Kirsty Watt, Nick Ukiah, Felicity Burbridge, Jackie Hopkins, Toby Mitchell, Rob Findlay, Ishtla Singh and especially Paul Foulkes and Mari Jones. My editor at the Press, Judith Ayling, has been unfailingly helpful; and I am most grateful to Peter Matthews, Jean Aitchison and two readers for Cambridge University Press, whose comments have changed the book immeasurably for the better.
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- Information
- Understanding Language Change , pp. xi - xiiPublisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1994