MODERN

PERSPECTIVE ON
LANGUAGE CHANGE
 SYNCHRONIC
LINGUISTICS
–made it possible to understand
sound change, analogy, and other
kinds of linguistic change in a more
general context
 Observable Linguistic
Change

Inception Change Period of

Phase Proper Diffusion
–Pluralizing foot as foots
–Generalizing the regular –ed
past tense form to produce
forms such as goed and
knowed
Analogy reflects the preference of
speakers for regular patterns over
irregular ones.
 Lexical Diffusion
– Word-by-word progress of sound change
through lexicon over a period of decades or
generation
– Reflect one aspect of the social mechanism by
which all change is propagated
Example: Record (noun or a verb)
 Generative Grammar

– Language change came to be seen as grammar

change
– Critical discussion of analogy centered over whether
the phenomena traditionally labeled “analogical”
might be better explained in terms of rule loss, rule
reordering, or other grammar-internal operations.
Summing Up

– Historical linguistics studies the nature and

causes of language change.
– Sound changes, analogy, language contact
resulting to borrowing are important sources of
language change
– All components of the grammar, from
phonology to semantics, are subject to change
over time.