Exaptation and Language Change
Editors
This volume is the first collection of papers that is exclusively dedicated to the concept of exaptation, a notion from evolutionary biology that was famously introduced into linguistics by Roger Lass in 1990. The past quarter-century has seen a heated debate on the properties of linguistic exaptation, its demarcation from other processes of linguistic change, and indeed the question of whether it is a useful concept in historical linguistics at all. The contributions in the present volume reflect these diverging points of view. Along with a comprehensive introduction, covering the history of the notion of exaptation from its conception in the field of biology to its adoption in linguistics, the book offers extensive discussion of the concept from various theoretical perspectives, detailed case studies as well as critical reviews of some stock examples. The book will be of interest to scholars working in the fields of evolutionary linguistics, historical linguistics, and the history of linguistics.
[Current Issues in Linguistic Theory, 336] 2016. viii, 411 pp.
Publishing status: Available
© John Benjamins
Table of Contents
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Preface | pp. vii–viii
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Exaptation: Taking stock of a controversial notion in linguisticsFreek Van de Velde and Muriel Norde | pp. 1–35
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Being exacting about exapting: An exaptation omnibusBrian D. Joseph | pp. 37–55
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Co-opting exaptation in a theory of language changeLivio Gaeta | pp. 57–92
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Exaptation in Japanese and beyondHeiko Narrog | pp. 93–120
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Functional changes and (meta-)linguistic evolutionFerdinand von Mengden | pp. 121–162
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Exaptation from the perspective of construction morphologyMuriel Norde and Graeme Trousdale | pp. 163–195
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Exaptation and degrammaticalization within an acquisition-based model of abductive reanalysisDavid Willis | pp. 197–225
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Allogenous exaptationFrancesco Gardani | pp. 227–260
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How functionless is junk, and how useful is exaptation? Probing the - i/esc - morphemeDieter Vermandere and Claire Meul | pp. 261–285
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The history of nominative -er in Danish and Swedish: A case of exaptation?Eva Skafte Jensen | pp. 287–316
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Is the development of linking elements in German a case of exaptation?Renata Szczepaniak | pp. 317–340
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Exploring and recycling: Topichood and the evolution of Ibero-romance articlesAlbert WallÁlvaro Sebastián Octavio de Toledo y Huerta | pp. 341–375
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Exaptation and adaptation: Two historical routes to final particles in JapaneseKatsunobu Izutsu and Mitsuko Narita Izutsu | pp. 377–401
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Language index | pp. 403–405
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Subject index | pp. 407–411
“Rather than attempting a unified picture of exaptation, this volume opens it up for further exploration and provides a forum for a discussion of refunctionalization of grammatical elements, with the focus on ''unexpected'' changes that set exaptation apart from cross-linguistically recurrent changes such as those captured by grammaticalization clines. The main value of this collection is in the diversity of views it offers and the variety of phenomena that get discussed under a common rubric.”
Natalie Operstein, on Linguist List 28.811 (10/02/2017)
“As the editors remark, even readers ‘reluctant to accept a new term in linguistics’ will find that this collection ‘has a lot to offer, as the plethora of changes that the authors present are often difficult to account for in well-known types of change like grammaticalization, and lay bare the intriguing dynamics of linguistic change’. I would agree whole-heartedly with this assessment.”
Roger Lass, University of Edinburgh, in Diachronica 34:1 (2017)
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De Smet, Isabeau & Freek Van de Velde
2020. Semantic differences between strong and weak verb forms in Dutch. Cognitive Linguistics 31:3 ► pp. 393 ff.
Elson, Mark J.
2023. The reflexes of Latin desinentialrVin Romanian conjugation as examples of exaptive change. Zeitschrift für romanische Philologie 139:3 ► pp. 851 ff.
Gaeta, Livio
2020. Remotivating inflectional classes. In Historical Linguistics 2017 [Current Issues in Linguistic Theory, 350], ► pp. 206 ff.
Gąsiorowski, Piotr
2017. Cherchez la femme: Two Germanic suffixes, one etymology. Folia Linguistica 51:s38-s1 ► pp. 125 ff.
Konvička, Martin
2017. De opkomst van de Nederlandse grammatica. Over grammaticalisatie en andere verwante ontwikkelingen in de geschiedenis van het Nederlands,
Kuteva, Tania, Bernd Heine, Bo Hong, Haiping Long, Heiko Narrog & Seongha Rhee
2019. World Lexicon of Grammaticalization,
Morin, Yves Charles
2019. L’augment clitique le dans le français du Poitou à la fin du XVI e et au début du XVII e siècle : un effet du substrat ?. Langages N° 215:3 ► pp. 73 ff.
Noël, Dirk
2019. The decline of the Deontic nci construction in Late Modern English. Cognitive Linguistic Studies 6:1 ► pp. 22 ff.
Ralli, Angela
2020. Matter versus pattern borrowing in compounding: Evidence from the Asia Minor Greek dialectal variety. Morphology 30:4 ► pp. 423 ff.
Ralli, Angela & Andreas Rouvalis
2022. Μorphological Integration of Loan Words in Kaliardá. Languages 7:3 ► pp. 167 ff.
Rosenkvist, Henrik
2021. Clause-final negative particles in varieties of Swedish. Studies in Language 45:3 ► pp. 598 ff.
Rupp, Laura & David Britain
2019. Verbal –s. In Linguistic Perspectives on a Variable English Morpheme, ► pp. 25 ff.
Schmuck, Mirjam, Matthias Eitelmann & Antje Dammel
2018. Introduction. In Reorganising Grammatical Variation [Studies in Language Companion Series, 203], ► pp. 1 ff.
von Mengden, Ferdinand & Anneliese Kuhle
2020. Recontextualization and language change. Folia Linguistica 54:s41-s1 ► pp. 253 ff.
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Subjects
Main BIC Subject
CFF: Historical & comparative linguistics
Main BISAC Subject
LAN009000: LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / General