Overview
Longman Linguistics Library General Editors R.H. Robins, University of London Geoffrey Horrocks, University of Cambridge David Denison, University of Manchester
Ever since the origins of both linguistics and evolutionary biology in the 19th century, scholars have noted the similarity between biological evolution and language change. Yet until recently neither linguists nor biologists have developed a model of evolution general enough to apply across the two fields. Even in linguistics, the field is split between the historical linguists who study change in language structure, and the sociolinguists who study social variation in the speech community.
Explaining Language Change provides the first thoroughly worked out framework for language evolution, building on the pioneering ideas of Richard Dawkins and David Hull in biology and philosophy of science. The author argues that linguistic innovations emerge from the remarkable complexity of communication in social interaction and that once innovations occur, they are propagated through the equally complex social structures of the speech communities we participate in. The book provides a framework for assessing current theories of language change, and advances new ideas about grammatical reanalysis, conventional and non-conventional use of language, the structure of speech communities, language mixing, and the notion of 'progress' in language change.
Presenting the first integrated theory of all aspects of language change, Explaining Language Change reintegrates sociolinguistics and historical linguistics and weaves together research on grammatical change, pragmatics, social variation, language contact and genetic linguistics.
William Croft is Professor of Linguistics at the University of Manchester.