Analogy and Morphological Change - (Edinburgh Historical Linguistics) by David L Fertig (Paperback)

About the Book

How learners and speakers make sense of their language and make their language make sense. This book is designed to help readers make sense of morphological change and, more generally, of the concept of analogy and its role in language and in human cognition.

Book Synopsis

How do learners and speakers make sense of their language and make their language make sense. Is it dived or dove? Dwarfs or dwarves? If the best students aced the test, did the pretty good students beece it? You've probably often pondered such questions yourself, but did you know that similar questions have inspired some of the most important advances in our understanding not only of how languages change but also of how children acquire grammar and how the human mind works? This book is designed to help readers make sense of morphological change and, more generally, of the concept of analogy and its role in language and in human cognition. With a critical look at the past 150 years of linguistic work on analogical change, David Fertig brings clarity to a field rife with terminological and theoretical confusion.

From the Back Cover

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).

Review Quotes

Fertig provides an insightful introduction to analogy and morphological change by critically analyzing, readjusting, and complementing traditional accounts on analogical change. It is particularly praiseworthy that Fertig offers many diachronic examples to explain and illustrate the different mechanisms of analogical and morphological change. The author also provides helpful summaries at the end of each chapter.

--Jessica Nowak, JGU Mainz "Journal of Germanic Linguistics"

About the Author

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.