The role of contact in the explanation of syntactic change
In the past, contact with other languages has rarely been adduced as an explanation for syntactic change. In my dissertation, I discuss the reasons for this bias against language contact, whether it can be justified and the implications of a change in approach to the role of contact in explanation. The bias against contact is perpetuated for two mains reasons. One is the lack of an appropriate model for explanation in historical linguistics which would allow principled reference to both internal and external motivating factors. The shortcomings of previously suggested models are discussed, and a more suitable alternative, the 'Invisible Hand' Model, is proposed. The second major reason for the rejection of contact is an unfortunate emphasis in contact linguistics itself. Researchers have started from the premise that syntactic borrowing is an extremely rare phenomenon, and therefore attention has been focused on identifying constraints on such contact-induced change. Many of the constraints that have been proposed can be shown to be not only contradicted by counterexamples of changes in the world's languages, but also theoretically unsound. The implications of altering our approach to explanation and the role
Farrar, K. J.
The role of contact in the explanation of syntactic change. In the past, contact with other languages has rarely been adduced as an explanation for syntactic change. In my dissertation, I discuss the reasons for this bias against language contact, whether it can be justified and the implications of a change in approach to the role of contact in explanation. The bias against contact is perpetuated for two mains reasons. One is the lack of an appropriate model for explanation in historical linguistics which would allow principled reference to both internal and external motivating factors. The shortcomings of previously suggested models are discussed, and a more suitable alternative, the 'Invisible Hand' Model, is proposed. The second major reason for the rejection of contact is an unfortunate emphasis in contact linguistics itself. Researchers have started from the premise that syntactic borrowing is an extremely rare phenomenon, and therefore attention has been focused on identifying constraints on such contact-induced change. Many of the constraints that have been proposed can be shown to be not only contradicted by counterexamples of changes in the world's languages, but also theoretically unsound. The implications of altering our approach to explanation and the role
role contact explanation syntactic change past contact language rarely explanation syntactic change discuss_reason bias language_contact whether justified implication change_role contact explanation bias contact perpetuate two_main reason lack appropriate model explanation historical_linguistics would allow principled reference internal_external motivating factor shortcoming previously_suggest model discuss suitable alternative invisible hand model_propose second major reason rejection contact emphasis contact linguistics itself start_premise syntactic borrowing extremely rare phenomenon therefore attention_focus identifying constraint contact induced change many constraint propose show counterexample change world languages also theoretically implication alter explanation role