Language Change – Models and Theories

Abstract

Models and theories of language change have a long non-scientific and scientific tradition. Beginning with theological approaches like Babylonian language confusion in Genesis 11 at least, going on with structural analysis like Verner’s law and qualitative investigations like Sapir’s drift or Keller’s (economically based) invisible hand theory and (not yet) ending with mathematical descriptions like PiotrowskiAltmann law. Against this background of diverse analyses, a special issue of Glottotheory will be dedicated to such models and theories of language change. Hence, we invite the scientific community to contribute to one or more of the following questions: 1. Which linguistic phenomena are the subject of analysis and are there any postulated links between them? 2. What principles or mechanisms of language change may be formulated (e.g. language synergetics or efficiency of communication)? 3. Which (rather) external (cultural, social, political, economic, etc.) reasons and internal mechanisms (such as creolization, grammaticalization or borrowing) of language change do we know and how do they interact? 4. How can language change be described precisely and which mathematically based theories can be derived from these descriptions? 5. How can qualitativemodels be translated into exact theories of language change, and vice versa, how do these theories have to be interpreted appropriately? 6. In which historical discourse are (more or less) known models and theories of language change situated, and by which interests are they driven or influenced? 7. Are there any new ideas, new foundations or new perspectives for models and theories of language change?