Comparing Linguistic Diachronies

This volume presents eight case studies examining diachronic linguistics and language contact, as well as different aspects of language change.

The chapters cover a variety of topics and consider the relationship between historical data and linguistic theory. They also examine the diachronic development of linguistic characteristics in different levels of linguistic analysis including historical morpho-syntax, historical phonology, historical pragmatics and historical sociolinguistics. The authors propose modern methodologies of analyzing and explaining the diachronic development of various morpho-phonological and morpho-syntactic characteristics. Focusing on common directions of change in different languages, including English, Gothic, Ancient Greek, Eastern Indo-Aryan and Hebrew, they provide explanations that reveal the role of internal factors as well as of language contact.

The volume promotes a dialogue between traditional approaches to language change and modern approaches utilizing new, statistical methodologies. Through this type of dialogue, the volume enriches our knowledge of theoretical perspectives, tools and methods that can facilitate a contrastive analysis of the diachronic development of linguistic characteristics.

Author Biography

Nikolaos Lavidas is Associate Professor of Diachronic Linguistics at the University of Athens, Greece.

Alexander Bergs is Full Professor and Chair of English Language and Linguistics at the University of Osnabrück, Germany.

Elly van Gelderen is Regents’ Professor Emeritus in English, Linguistics and Applied Linguistics at Arizona State University, USA.

Ioanna Sitaridou is Professor of Spanish and Historical Linguistics at the University of Cambridge, UK.