Trask-15-3rd-ed-by-McColl-Millar-Historical-linguistics

Contents

List of illustrations ix

To the reader xii

To the teacher xiv

Acknowledgements xvi

Abbreviations xviii

1 The fact of language change 1

1.1 Chilled 1

1.2 English then and now 2

1.3 Attitudes to language change 6

1.4 The inevitability of change 10

Case study: bonk! 11

Further reading 13

Exercises 14

2 Lexical and semantic change 16

2.1 Borrowing 16

2.2 Phonological treatment of loans 21

2.3 Morphological treatment of loans 24

2.4 Formation of new words 26

2.5 Change in word-meaning 32

Case study: nice 41

Further reading 44

Exercises 44

3 Phonological change I: change in pronunciation 48

3.1 The phonetic basis of phonological change 48

3.2 Assimilation and dissimilation 49

3.3 Lenition and fortition 51

3.4 Addition and removal of phonetic features 55