Every language includes layers of lexical and grammatical elements that entered it at different times in the more or less distant past. Hence, for periods preceding our earliest historical documentation, linguistic stratigraphy — the systematic study of such layers — may yield information about the… read more
This collection of papers consolidates the observation that linguistic change typically is actualized step by step: any structural innovation being introduced, accepted, and generalized, over time, in one grammatical environment after another, in a progression that can be understood by reference to… read more
This volume contains a selection of 34 of the 96 papers presented at ICHL 1993, including several of the contributions to the workshop on Parameters and Typology organized jointly by Henning Andersen and David W. Lightfoot. Major topics represented are grammaticalization and functional renewal… read more
The volume contains 37 papers originally presented at the 8th International Conference on Historical Linguistics in Lille, France. The papers bring historical data to bear on issues in theoretical linguistics, both descriptive and diachronic or deal with specific questions in the history of… read more
This paper is about the current disconnect between synchronic and diachronic linguistics and the need for historical linguists to take the lead in addressing the big issues in morphology: how agglutination develops into fusion and symbolism, how these techniques are maintained through time, how… read more
The following comparison of Naturalness theory and Markedness theory contrasts naturalness scales and markedness relations and the distinct notions of value in the two theories in order to focus on recent advances in the identification of rules of naturalness syntax and markedness syntax. It is… read more
Taking Heine’s (2003) characterization of Grammaticalization as its point of departure, this paper proposes an elementary framework, and corresponding terminology, for the description of the most common types of historical change in grammar (changes in content, content syntax, expression, and… read more
