language change
Let an agent explain how and why languages change, distinguish the mechanisms and their evidence, relay findings from historical and sociolinguistic research with attribution, and separate change from error, decline or language death.
Research draft, second pass
A second pass drafted this model: the structure a model of this thing needs, and what is known about it in the world. The line under this one says how the second half was obtained - researched against sources, or recalled without web access, in which case nothing here was read anywhere and every claim is a lead to verify. Unreviewed either way.
written by Claude from model knowledge without web access - no source was read, every claim is a lead to verify
Researched by: Claude
Purpose and description
Let an agent explain how and why languages change, distinguish the mechanisms and their evidence, relay findings from historical and sociolinguistic research with attribution, and separate change from error, decline or language death.
The process by which languages change over time in sound, grammar, vocabulary and meaning, through mechanisms such as sound change, analogy, borrowing, grammaticalisation and semantic shift, driven by variation among speakers, contact between languages and social factors; studied by historical linguistics and sociolinguistics.
What it is for: Not for anything; a natural process.
It can be explain mechanisms of change with examples; explain how change is observed and dated; relay research findings with attribution; address prescriptive claims neutrally.
Distinguishing features
Gradual and systematic
Mechanisms: sound change, analogy, borrowing, grammaticalisation, semantic change
Driven by variation and contact
Neither decay nor improvement in linguistic terms
What it looks like
Not visible; seen in differences between texts, generations and regions.
How it is recognised
Systematic differences between older and newer forms of a language
Variation among speakers that spreads through a community
Language death and language planning are separate processes
Related models
is a kind of - a process over time
is studied by - the discipline
is related to - a major driver
is confused with - loss of a language is a different process
In practice
Families and kinds
sound change
grammatical change and grammaticalisation
lexical change and borrowing
semantic change
contact-induced change, creolisation and pidginisation
change in progress observed in real time
Standards and regulation
No regulation; language academies attempt to guide usage in some countries
Failure modes and hazards
Treating change as corruption
Overstating single explanations
Confusing variation with change
Also called
+3
Where this came from
wikidata · CC0 1.0
Drafted structure
Bundle to layer to finding to question, as the second pass will find it: 4 bundles · 8 layers · 8 findings · 16 questions.
Mechanisms How languages change.
Mechanisms are the core.
Sound and grammar
Sound and grammatical change.
Sound
Sound.
- How do sound change, analogy and grammaticalisation work, with examples? definition
- Is the question about a specific language, which has its own entry? boundary
Lexicon and meaning
Lexical and semantic change.
Lexicon
Lexicon.
- How do words enter, leave and shift meaning, including borrowing? definition
- Which entry fits etymology? action
Causes Why change happens.
Causes and spread.
Variation
Variation and spread.
Variation
Variation.
- How does variation among speakers turn into change, and how does change spread? provenance
- Which findings are attributed to which researchers? provenance
Contact
Contact.
Contact
Contact.
- How do contact, bilingualism and creolisation drive change? provenance
- Which entry fits language contact? action
Evidence Observing and dating change.
Evidence.
Methods
Methods.
Methods
Methods.
- How is change reconstructed, dated and observed in progress? measurement
- Which corpora and methods are standard? provenance
Limits
Limits of evidence.
Limits
Limits.
- What can and cannot be known about unwritten stages? boundary
- How is uncertainty expressed? measurement
Society Attitudes and policy.
Change is contested socially.
Attitudes
Prescriptivism.
Attitudes
Attitudes.
- How do prescriptive attitudes and academies respond to change, with positions attributed? provenance
- Is the presentation neutral? boundary
Learn
Teaching.
Learn
Learn.
- How is language change taught, and which references are standard? provenance
- Which entry fits historical linguistics? action
What the second pass must settle
- Should each mechanism be a separate entry?
- How should corpora and dated evidence be linked?
- The registry entry has merged aliases naming specific mechanisms; should they be split off?