Change in Language

Brigitte Nerlich serves as Emeritus Professor of Science, Language, and Society at the Institute for Science and Society, School of Sociology and Social Policy, University of Nottingham. She studied French and philosophy in Germany, earning a DPhil in French linguistics, before completing postdoctoral work at Oxford and joining Nottingham. Her research examines how metaphors and framing devices shape public, policy, and scientific discourse on synthetic biology and climate change. She has published extensively on linguistics history, semantic change, metaphor, metonymy, polysemy, and the sociology of science and health. The University of Nottingham awarded her a DLitt in 2011 for her metaphor research.

• Introduction Part One: Whitney and Bréal 1. The bio-bibliographical background 2. Friends and enemies 3. Evolution, transformation, or ‘the life and growth of language’? 4. Language, its nature and its origin 5. The mystery of language-change 6. Laws of language-change 7. Linguistic creativity 8. Language and the speaking subject Part Two: Wegener 9. Whitney and Bréal, Paul and Steinthal, and their relation to Wegener 10. The bio-bibliographical background 11. The life and growth of language Conclusion