Analogy and Morphological Change

EDINBURGH HISTORICAL LINGUISTICS Series Editors: Joseph Salmons and David Willis Edinburgh Historical Linguistics is a series of advanced textbooks, where individual volumes cover key subfields within Historical Linguistics in depth. The series provides a comprehensive introduction to this broad and increasingly complex field. ANALOGY AND MORPHOLOGICAL CHANGE 'Fertig's valuable and insightful book on analogy and morphological change is an extremely welcome contribution to the field.' Lyle Campbell, University of Hawai'i at Manoa This advanced textbook provides a thorough, critical examination of traditional approaches to analogical change and an in-depth introduction to important recent work in a variety of frameworks. Key topics include the relationship between covert reanalysis and overt innovation, the relative importance of acquisition, repetition, and speaker creativity in grammatical change, the status of several supposedly less important types of change including folk etymology, blending, and back formation, and various aspects of the relationship between analogical change and sound change. It also takes a close look at the value of concepts such as 'naturalness' for explaining and predicting directions of change. Although the focus is on morphological change, the book also examines the role of analogy in syntactic, semantic, and phonological change. Numerous examples are provided from English and a wide variety of other languages, making this an absorbing and illuminating read for advanced students in linguistics. David Fertig is Associate Professor in the Department of Linguistics at the University at Buffalo (SUNY). He is the author of Morphological Change Up Close (2000).

David L. Fertig David Fertig is Associate Professor in the Department of Linguistics at the University at Buffalo (SUNY). He is the author of Morphological Change Up Close (Niemeyer, 2000) and is currently working with several colleagues on a new English translation with commentary of major chapters from Hermann Paul's Prinzipien der Sprachgeschichte. He lives in Amherst, NY with his wife and the youngest of their three children.