Can We Predict Linguistic Change?

Edited by Christina Sanchez-Stockhammer, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg

Publication date: 2015

Traditional discussions of linguistic change usually limit themselves to finding explanations for how particular past stages in a language could have been arrived at. This volume reverses this perspective and addresses the question whether it is possible to predict future linguistic change based on what we know about past stages of the English language, present-day variant distribution and general principles of linguistic change (e.g. the typical S-curves).

Table of contents

Sanchez-Stockhammer, Christina
Can we predict linguistic change? An introduction
http://www.helsinki.fi/varieng/journal/volumes/16/introduction.html

Nevalainen, Terttu
Descriptive adequacy of the S-curve model in diachronic studies of language change
http://www.helsinki.fi/varieng/journal/volumes/16/nevalainen/ (see abstract)

Tagliamonte, Sali A.
Exploring the architecture of variable systems to predict language change
http://www.helsinki.fi/varieng/journal/volumes/16/tagliamonte/ (see abstract)

Minkova, Donka
A U-turn and its consequences for the history of final schwa in English
http://www.helsinki.fi/varieng/journal/volumes/16/minkova/ (see abstract)

Rütten, Tanja
For whom the bell tolls, or: Why we predicted the death of the English subjunctive
http://www.helsinki.fi/varieng/journal/volumes/16/rutten/ (see abstract)

Dorgeloh, Heidrun & Gero Kunter
Modelling adjective phrase inversion as an instance of functional specialization in non-locative inversion
http://www.helsinki.fi/varieng/journal/volumes/16/dorgeloh_kunter/ (see abstract)

MacKenzie, Ian
Will English as a lingua franca impact on native English?
http://www.helsinki.fi/varieng/journal/volumes/16/mackenzie/ (see abstract)

Technical note

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Web editing of this volume

Joe McVeigh
Linda Ravindrarajan