Get fulltext from our e-platform
Historical Linguistics
A cognitive grammar introduction
This textbook serves a dual purpose. It is, first, a comprehensive introduction to historical linguistics, intended for both undergraduate and graduate students who have taken, at the least, an introductory course in linguistics. Secondly, unlike many such textbooks, this one is based in the theoretical framework of Cognitive Linguistics, a semantics-based theory which emphasizes the relationship between cognition and language. Descriptions and explanations touch on cognitive, social, and physiological aspects of language as it changes across time. Examples come principally from Germanic (English, German, Yiddish) and Romance (French and Spanish), but with some exploration of aspects of the history of other languages as well. Each chapter concludes with exercises based on material in the chapter and also with suggestions for extensions of the content to wider issues in diachronic linguistics.
[Not in series, 227] 2020. xvii, 241 pp.
Publishing status: Available
Published online on 16 April 2020
Published online on 16 April 2020
© John Benjamins
Table of Contents
- List of figures | pp. xiii–xiv
- Preface
- Acknowledgments | pp. xvii–xviii
- Chapter 1. What is language change? | pp. 1–22
- Chapter 2. Studying change | pp. 23–46
- Chapter 3. Lexical change | pp. 47–72
- Chapter 4. Phonetic change | pp. 73–96
- Chapter 5. Phonological change | pp. 97–118
- Chapter 6. Morphological change | pp. 119–142
- Chapter 7. Syntactic change | pp. 143–168
- Chapter 8. Actuation and spread | pp. 169–184
- Chapter 9. Methodology | pp. 185–212
- Chapter 10. Causation, prediction, and final remarks | pp. 213–230
- References
- Index
“Winters covers what needs to be covered in a historical linguistics textbook, but also positions the different types of change in a cognitive framework in a way that is understandable for non-specialists. The book flows well and the text is accessible for beginners.”
Isabeau De Smet, KU Leuven & Research Foundation Flanders (FWO), in Journal of Historical Linguistics 12:2 (2022)
Cited by (10)
Cited by ten other publications
جدّة, هيفاء
Bergs, Alexander
Krukowska, Sylwia
Silva, Carlos & Steven Moran
Pleyer, Michael, Svetlana Kuleshova & Marek Placiński
Puglisi, Giuseppina Emma, Louena Shtrepi, Marco Carlo Masoero & Arianna Astolfi
Soares da Silva, Augusto
2024. Constructional changes in Brazilian Portuguese in the 20th century. In Language Change in the 20th Century [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 340], ► pp. 261 ff.
Kostadinova, Viktorija, Marco Wiemann, Gea Dreschler, Sune Gregersen, Beáta Gyuris, Ai Zhong, Lieselotte Anderwald, Beke Hansen, Sven Leuckert, Tihana Kraš, Shawnea Sum Pok Ting, Ida Parise, Alessia Cogo & Elisabeth Reber
Markússon, Jón Símon
2022.
Tvær blækur labba inn á bar
. NOWELE. North-Western European Language Evolution 75:2 ► pp. 194 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 25 november 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.