Language Change

Joan Bybee is Distinguished Professor Emerita of Linguistics at the University of New Mexico.

• 1. The study of language change; 2. Sound change; 3. Sound change and phonological change in wider perspective; 4. The interaction of sound change with grammar; 5. Analogical change; 6. Grammaticalization: processes and mechanisms; 7. Common paths of grammaticalization; 8. Syntactic change: the development and change of constructions; 9. Lexical change: how languages get new words and how words change their meaning; 10. Comparison, reconstruction and typology; 11. Causes of language change: internal and external factors.

'This book, written by someone who has been influential in shaping our understanding of phonological and grammatical processes, provides a new perspective on how the study of language change can be, and in my view should be, approached.' Bernd Heine, University of Cologne