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Published 2010.
Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 159
One of the principal challenges of historical linguistics is to explain the causes of language change. A key element of this explanation, however, must address the 'actuation problem': why is it ...
Published 2010.
Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 159
One of the principal challenges of historical linguistics is to explain the causes of language change. A key element of this explanation, however, must address the 'actuation problem': why is it that changes occurring in a given language at a certain time cannot be reliably predicted to recur in other, apparently similar languages. The sixteen contributions to the present volume each aim to elucidate various aspects of this problem, including: What processes can be identified as the drivers of change? How central are syntax-external (phonological, lexical or contact-based) factors in triggering syntactic change? And how can all of these factors be reconciled with the actuation problem. Exploring data from a wide range of languages from both a formal and a functional perspective, this book promises to be of interest to advanced students and researchers in historical linguistics, syntax and their intersection.
