How and why do languages change? This new introduction offers a guide to the types of
change at all levels of linguistic structure, as well as the mechanisms behind each type …

This book makes a fundamental contribution to phonology, linguistic typology, and the
nature of the human language faculty. Distinctive features in phonology distinguish one …

Interest in the phonetics of sound change is as old as scientific linguistics (Osthoff and
Brugman 1878). The prevalent view is that a key component of sound change is what …

This study of word frequency effects on sound change provides a resolution of the
Neogrammarian controversy. Betty S. Phillips discusses the implications for phonology and …

An overview of Evolutionary Phonology 1.1. Explaining sound patterns Phonology is the
study of sound patterns of the world's languages. In all spoken languages, we find sound …

This book presents the first cross-linguistic study of the phenomenon of infixation, typically
associated in English with words like" im-bloody-possible", and found in all the world's major …

A diverse set of empirical findings indicate that word predictability in context influences the
fine-grained details of both speech production and comprehension. In particular, lower …

We examine the puzzling displacement in various Spanish dialects of a plural suffix from a
verb where it is motivated semantically, syntactically, and morphologically onto a following …

The most visible face of historical linguistics is the study of language relationships. It has
been revitalised in the last few decades by a wealth of new linguistic, historical …

I had originally intended to subtitle this book A View from Left Field. The difficulty with that is
twofold. First, the subtitle would not have given much insight into the actual approach taken …