Actualization: Linguistic Change in Progress (Current Issues in Linguistic Theory)

Hardcover, 250 pages, NOT ex-library. Interior is very good, clean and bright throughout, with unmarked text, free of inscriptions and stamps, firmly bound. Boards show moderate handling wear: shelfworn marks and scratches, small indentations, gentle scuffing. Published without a dust jacket. -- This collection of papers consolidates the observation that linguistic change typically is actualized step by step: any structural innovation being introduced, accepted, and generalized, over time, in one grammatical environment after another, in a progression that can be understood by reference to the markedness values and the ranking of the conditioning features. The Introduction to the volume and a chapter by Henning Andersen clarify the theoretical bases for this observation, which is exemplified and discussed in separate chapters by Kristin Bakken, Alexander Bergs and Dieter Stein, Vit Bubenik, Ulrich Busse, Marianne Mithun, Lene Schøsler, and John Charles Smith in the light of data from the histories of Norwegian, English, Hindi, Northern Iroquoian, and Romance. A final chapter by Michael Shapiro adds a philosophical perspective. The papers were first presented in a workshop on "Actualization Patterns in Linguistic Change" at the XIV International Conference on Historical Linguistics, Vancouver, B.C. in 1999. -- Contents: Position paper: Markedness and the theory of change by Henning Andersen; Patterns of restitution of sound change by Kristin Bakken; The role of markedness in the actuation and actualization of linguistic change by Alexander Bergs & Dieter Stein; On the actualization of the passive-to-ergative shift in Pre-Islamic India by Vit Bubenik; The use of address pronouns in Early Modern English by Ulrich Busse; Actualization patterns in grammaticalization: from clause to locative morphology in Northern Iroquoian by Marianne Mithun; From Latin to Modern French: actualization and markedness by Lene Schosler; Markedness, causation, and linguistic change: a semiotic perspective by Michael Shapiro; Markedness, functionality, and perseveration in the actualization of a morphosyntactic change by John Charles Smith; Actualization and the (uni)directionality of change by Henning Andersen; General Index.…