Cover not available

In:On Multiple Source Constructions in Language Change
Edited by Hendrik De Smet, Lobke Ghesquière and Freek Van de Velde
[Benjamins Current Topics 79] 2015
► pp. 205–221

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
authorization required

Multiple sources and multiple causes multiply explored

 | The Ohio State University
Published online: 25 November 2015
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/bct.79.08jos
Multiple sources abound in language, at all levels of linguistic analysis (phonology, syntax, semantics, etc.), and in a range of historical pursuits, including etymology and variationist investigations. From a methodological standpoint, moreover, recognizing multiple sources is often good historical linguistic practice (contrary to inclinations towards neat and elegant solutions that satisfy Occam’s Razor). That is, if we can identify multiple pressures on some part of a language system, it cannot always readily be excluded that some or even all might have played a role in shaping a particular development; if all of the factors represent reasonable pressures that speakers could have been aware of and influenced by, excluding any could simply be arbitrary. In this paper, accordingly, I survey the breadth of multiple sources in a variety of areas of language change, and advance one particular consequence that multiple sources can lead to, namely the hypothesis that recognizing multiple sources can be a basis for positing proto-language variation that is realized in variation within single languages and across related languages.
References (24)
References
Anderson, John, Hope C. Dawson & Brian D. Joseph. 2010. Historical linguistics. In Kirsten Malmkjaer (ed.), The Routledge linguistics encyclopedia, 3rd edn, 225–251. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Comrie, Bernard. 1978. On the go ~ went alternation: A contribution (?) to the generative phonology of English. In Tom Ernst & Evan Smith (eds.), Lingua Pranca. Bloomington: Indiana University Linguistics Club. Available at [URL].Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Finkin, Jordan. 2005. Enantiodrama: Enantiosemia in Arabic and beyond. Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 68. 369–386. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Friedman, Victor A. 2003. Evidentiality in the Balkans. In Alexandra Aikhenvald & Robert Dixon (eds.), Studies in evidentiality, 189–218. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hale, Mark. 2007. Historical linguistics: Theory and method. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hesseling, Dirk C. 1920. Le coucher de soleil en Grèce. Neophilologus 5. 165–169. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hock, Hans Henrich. 1976. Review of Raimo Anttila, An introduction to historical and comparative linguistics . Language 52. 202–220. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Janda, Richard D. & Brian D. Joseph. 2003. Reconsidering the canons of sound change: Towards a big bang theory. In Barry Blake & Kate Burridge (eds.), Historical linguistics 2001: Selected papers from the 15th International Conference on Historical Linguistics, Melbourne, 13–17 August 2001, 205–219. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jokl, Norbert. 1914. Eine albanesisch-neugriechische Wortparallele. Mitteilungen des Rumänischen Instituts der Universität Wien I. 298–308.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Joseph, Brian D. 1982a. The source of Ancient Greek tolupē . Glotta 60. 230–234.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1982b. Oscan slaagi . Glotta 60. 112–115.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1983/2009. The synchrony and diachrony of the Balkan infinitive: A study in areal, general, and historical linguistics (Cambridge Studies in Linguistics, Supplementary Series). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (reissued in paperback, 2009, Cambridge University Press).Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1999. Utterance-finality: Framing the issues. In Bohumil Palek, Osamu Fujimura & Brian Joseph (eds.), Proceedings of LP ‘98 (4th Linguistics and Phonetics Conference), vol. 2, 3–13. Prague: Charles University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2006. On projecting variation back into a proto-language, with particular attention to Germanic evidence and some thoughts on ‘drift’. In Thomas Cravens (ed.), Variation and reconstruction, 103–118. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2008. Historical linguistics in 2008: The state of the art. In Piet van Sterkenburg (ed.), Unity and diversity of languages, 175–187. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2012. A variationist solution to apparent copying across related languages. In Lars Johanson & Martine Robbeets (eds.), Copies versus cognates in bound morphology, ch. 7, 151–164. Leiden: Brill. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2013. Demystifying ‘drift’ — a variationist account. In Lars Johanson, Martine Robbeets & Hubert Cuyckens (eds.), Shared grammaticalization with special focus on the Transeurasian languages. 43–66. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kriaras, Emmanuel. 1937. Sur l’expression grecque moderne βασιλεύει ‘ο ‘ήλιος. Revue Internationale des Études Balkaniques 3. 462–468.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Labov, William. 1963. The social motivation of a sound change. Word 19. 273–303.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Malkiel, Yakov. 1976. Multi-conditioned sound change and the impact of morphology on pho- nology. Language 52(4). 757–778. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Norrman, Ralf. 1999. Creating the world in our image. In Max Nänny & Olga Fischer (eds.), Form miming meaning, 59–82. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Papahagi, Tache. 1923. O problema de romanitate sudilirica. Grai şi Suflet 1. 72ff.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sapir, Edward. 1921. Language. An introduction to the study of speech. New York: Harcourt.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Trudgill, Peter. 2004. New-dialect formation: The inevitability of colonial Englishes. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (3)

Cited by three other publications

Breban, Tine, Kersti Börjars & Lorenzo Moretti
2025. Multiple source explanation in language change. Diachronica DOI logo
Konvička, Martin
2025. Language contact in online spaces. In Dutch and Contact Linguistics [IMPACT: Studies in Language, Culture and Society, 55], ► pp. 559 ff. DOI logo
Hoffmann, Thomas & Graeme Trousdale
2022. On Multiple Paths and Change in the Language Network. Zeitschrift für Anglistik und Amerikanistik 70:3 ► pp. 359 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 11 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue