Is the change of language progress or regression?

Author: (English) Aitchison / Xu Jiazhen
Publisher:
Publication Date: 1997-06-01
Features: The topic of language change is arguably more extensive than most other topics. For this reason, papers on this topic are often disconnected and contradictory, as many scholars, like Jane Austen, tend to polish only their own square inch of ivory rather than addressing the entire subject. This book attempts to integrate various perspectives into a coherent whole, providing readers with a comprehensive view of the phenomenon of human language change. The book will discuss: Where does our evidence for language change come from? How does change occur? Why does it happen? And how and why do languages arise and die? These questions are addressed within the framework of a central issue: Is language change a symptom of progress or regression? In recent years, the characteristics of research on language change (often termed "historical linguistics") have undergone significant changes. Traditionally, scholars were concerned only with how to reconstruct the earliest forms of language and describe how phonology changed as historical timelines unfolded. Consequently, they paid relatively little attention to recent changes, syntactic changes, pidgin and creole languages, dying languages, or the sociolinguistic and psycholinguistic factors behind many changes. In the past twenty-five years or so, these neglected topics have become the focus of attention. This book attempts to integrate both old and new research emphases into a unified whole. In short, the book aims to combine traditional historical linguistics with updated research methods to provide readers with a general understanding of the current state of research in this field.