Regularity in Semantic Change

This important study of semantic change examines the various ways in which new meanings arise through language use.

List of contents

List of figures; Preface and acknowledgements; Conventions; List of abbreviations; 1. The framework; 2. Prior and current work on semantic change; 3. The development of modal verbs; 4. The development of adverbials with discourse marker function; 5. The development of performative verbs and constructions; 6. The development of social deictics; 7. Conclusion; Primary references; Secondary references; Index of languages; Index of names; Index of subjects.

About the author

Elizabeth Closs Traugott is Professor of Linguistics and English at Stanford University. Her previous books include A History of English Syntax (1972), Linguistics for Students of Literature (with Mary L. Pratt, 1980) and Grammaticalization (with Paul J. Hopper, Cambridge, 1993).

Summary

This important study of semantic change examines the various ways in which new meanings arise through language use, especially the ways in which speakers and writers experiment with words and constructions in the flow of strategic interaction with addressees.

Product details

• Authors: Richard B. Dasher, Elizabeth Close Traugott, Elizabeth Closs Traugott
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 15.03.2011
• EAN: 9780521583787
• ISBN: 978-0-521-58378-7
• No. of pages: 362
• Dimensions: 157 mm x 235 mm x 26 mm
• Weight: 738 g
• Series: Cambridge Studies in Linguisti
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative linguistics; Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Geosciences > Geography