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Analyzing language change through a formalist framework

2019; John Benjamins Publishing Company; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1075/slcs.207.03bae

0165-7763

Raffaela Baechler, Simon Pröll,

Linguistics and language evolution

This article serves as a case study on using formal morphological models to analyze systematic language change processes in inflectional morphology. By drawing on data from four Germanic varieties at two points in time (Old Swedish, Övdalian, Old High German and Visperterminen Alemannic) and applying the concepts of paradigm linkage theory to them, we are able to exemplarily monitor and model changes concerning case syncretism in nominal inflection in a way that is more differentiated than previous analyses. Thus, while the pure empirical results on Germanic morphology already are revealing by themselves, we also provide both a diachronic extension to formal morphology as well as finer granularity and appropriateness of description to historical linguistics as a whole.