Jean Aitchison

Language Change (eBook, ePUB)

Progress or Decay?

• Format: ePub

Produktbeschreibung

How and why do languages change? Where does the evidence of language change come from? How do languages begin and end? This introduction to language change explores these and other questions, considering changes through time. The central theme of this book is whether language change is a symptom of progress or decay. This book will show you why it is neither, and that understanding the factors surrounding how language change occurs is essential to understanding why it happens. This updated edition remains non-technical and accessible to readers with no previous knowledge of linguistics.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Cambridge University Press
• Erscheinungstermin: 20. Dezember 2012
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9781139610674
• Artikelnr.: 52920841

Autorenporträt

After many years lecturing with the University of London (at the London School of Economics and Political Science), Jean Aitchison was Professor of Language and Communication at the University of Oxford (1993-2003) and is now an Emeritus Professor. She is the author of a number of books on language, including The Language Web (Cambridge University Press, 1997).

Inhaltsangabe

Part I. Preliminaries: 1. The ever-whirling wheel
2. Collecting up clues
3. Charting the changes
Part II. Transition: 4. Spreading the word
5. Conflicting loyalties
6. Catching on and taking off
7. Caught in the web
8. The wheels of language
9. Spinning away
Part III. Causation: 10. The reason why
11. Doing what comes naturally
12. Repairing the patterns
13. Pushing and pulling
Part IV. Beginnings and Endings: 14. Language birth
15. Language death
16. Progress or decay?