Language Change, Variation, and Universals

Abstract

Abstract This volume is about how human languages get to be the way they are, why they are different from one another in some ways and not others, and why they change in the ways that they do. Given that language is a universal creation of the human mind, the puzzle is why there are different languages at all, why we don’t all speak the same language. And while there is considerable variation, there are ways in which grammars show consistent patterns. The solution to these puzzles, the author proposes, is a constructional one. Grammars consist of constructions that carry out the function of expressing universal conceptual structure. While there are in principle many different ways of accomplishing this task, the constructions that languages actually use are under pressure to reduce complexity. The result is that there is constructional change in the direction of less complexity, and grammatical patterns emerge that reflect conceptual universals. The volume consists of three parts. Part I establishes the theoretical foundations: situating universals in conceptual structure, formally defining constructions, and characterizing constructional complexity. Part II explores variation in argument structure, grammatical functions, and A′ constructions, drawing on data from a variety of languages, including English and Plains Cree. Part III looks at constructional change, focusing primarily on English and German. The study ends with some observations and speculations on parameter theory, analogy, the origins of typological patterns, and Greenbergian ‘universals’.

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