Full Description
In much writing on language change, there is a tacit assumption that change operates on a single source construction to produce an innovative target construction. This volume challenges this assumption, by showing that many changes involve interactions between multiple source constructions. In fact, the involvement of multiple source constructions is unexceptional. The phenomenon is observed in phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics. It is seen in language-internal change as well as in contact-induced change. Interactions may obtain between independent but historically related constructions as well as between historically unrelated constructions. The contributions to this volume, on the one hand, present specific case studies on changes involving multiple source constructions, in various domains of grammar and in a variety of languages. On the other hand, they discuss how such changes can be accommodated in current theoretical models of language.
Originally published in Studies in Language Vol. 37:3 (2013).
Contents
1. Introduction; 2. On multiple source constructions in language change (by Van de Velde, Freek); 3. Articles; 4. Multiple inheritance and constructional change (by Trousdale, Graeme); 5. An inquiry into unidirectionality as a foundational element of grammaticalization: On the role played by analogy and the synchronic grammar system in processes of language change (by Fischer, Olga); 6. Serving two masters: Form-function friction in syntactic amalgams (by De Smet, Hendrik); 7. Multiple sources for the German scandal construction (by Gaeta, Livio); 8. Sources of auxiliation in the perfects of Europe (by Drinka, Bridget); 9. Multiple roots of innovations in language contact: Evidence from morphological intermingling in contact between Ingrian Finnish and Estonian (by Riionheimo, Helka); 10. Multiple sources and multiple causes multiply explored (by Joseph, Brian D.); 11. Subject index
