Cover not available
Part of
Perspectives on Language Structure and Language Change: Studies in honor of Henning Andersen
Edited by Lars Heltoft, Iván Igartua, Brian D. Joseph, Kirsten Jeppesen Kragh and Lene Schøsler
[Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 345] 2019
► pp. 13–34

Andersen (1973) and dichotomies of change

Henning Andersen in his well-known and oft-cited (1973) article “Abductive and deductive change” (language 49(4).765–793) distinguishes two types of language change: evolutive change – defined as “change entirely explainable in terms of the linguistic system that gave rise to it” – and adaptive change – defined as “a change not explainable without reference to factors outside the linguistic system in question”. In this paper, we present an overview of the evolutive versus adaptive dichotomy in Andersen’s work and the role this dichotomy has played in the field in ensuing years. While this particular terminology has never taken a central role in discussions of these issues, the terms are still in some use, and the field as a whole has seen a proliferation of various terms focusing on this and similar dichotomies.

Keywords: evolutive vs. adaptive change, internally vs. externally motivated change, terminological dichotomies, language change
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Evolutive versus adaptive and its historical context
    • 2.1Evolutive versus adaptive in Andersen (1973)
    • 2.2Earlier conceptions of this distinction
  • 3.Evolutive versus adaptive and ADC’s reception
    • 3.1Initial survey
    • 3.2The continued development of the evolutive/adaptive dichotomy
    • 3.3Reception of evolutive versus adaptive: The first twenty-five years
  • 4.Why this reception for ADC and the evolutive/adaptive distinction?
    • 4.1Generative rules?
    • 4.2Competing terminological distinctions
  • 5.More recent attention for ADC and the evolutive/adaptive distinction
    • 5.1“Adaptive sound change” in Dahl (2004)
    • 5.2A recent resurgence?
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 18 June 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.345.01jos
References
Aitchison, Jean
1981/1991/2001 Language change: Progress or decay? (1st/2nd/3rd edn.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Andersen, Henning
1969 A study in diachronic morphophonemics: The Ukrainian prefixes. Language 45.807–830. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1972 Diphthongization. Language 48.11–50. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1973 Abductive and deductive change. Language 49. 765–793. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1974 Towards a typology of change: Bifurcating changes and binary relations. In J. M. Anderson & C. Jones (eds.), Historical linguistics II: Theory and description in phonology: Proceedings of the First International Conference on Historical Linguistics, 17–60. Amsterdam: North-Holland.Google Scholar
1980a Morphological change: Towards a typology. In Jacek Fisiak (ed.), Historical morphology, 1–50. The Hague: Mouton. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1980b Russian conjugation: Acquisition and evolutive change. In Elizabeth Closs Traugott, Rebecca Labrum & Susan C. Shepherd (eds.), Papers from the Fourth International Conference on Historical Linguistics, Stanford, March 26–30 1979, 285–301. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
1988 Center and periphery: Adoption, diffusion, and spread. In J. Fisiak (ed.), Historical dialectology, regional and social, 39–83. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1989 Understanding linguistic innovations. In L. E. Breivik & E. H. Jahr (eds.), Language change: Contributions to the study of its causes,, 5–28. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2006 Synchrony, diachrony and evolution. In Ole Nedergaard Thomsen (ed.), Competing models of linguistic change, 59–90. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Anttila, Raimo
1972/1989 Historical and comparative linguistics (1st/2nd edn.). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Bloomfield, Leonard
1926 A set of postulates for the science of language. Language 2. 153–164. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1933 Language. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.Google Scholar
Bowern, Claire & Bethwyn Evans
(eds.) 2015 The Routledge handbook of historical linguistics. New York: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bynon, Theodora
1977 Historical linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Campbell, Lyle
1999 Historical linguistics: An introduction (1st edn.). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Chomsky, Noam & Morris Halle
1968 The sound pattern of English. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Crowley, Terry
1987/1997 An introduction to historical linguistics (1st/3rd edn.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
D’Arcy, Alexandra
2015 Variation, transmission, incrementation. In Patrick Honeybone & Joseph Salmons (eds.), The Oxford handbook of historical phonology, 583–602. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
D’Arcy, Alexandra & Sali A. Tagliamonte
2015 Not always variable: Probing the vernacular grammar. Language Variation and Change 27.255–285. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dahl, Östen
2004 The growth and maintenance of linguistic complexity. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Disterheft, Dorothy
1990 The role of adaptive rules in language change. Diachronica 7.181–198. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dorian, Nancy
1993 Internally and externally motivated change in language contact settings: Doubts about dichotomy. In Charles Jones (ed.), Historical linguistics: Problems and perspectives, 131–155. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Frellesvig, Bjarke
1995  A case study in diachronic phonology: The Japanese onbin sound changes . Aarhus: Aarhus University Press.Google Scholar
Friedman, Victor A.
2006 The Balkans as a linguistic area. In Keith Brown (ed.), Elsevier encyclopedia of language and linguistics, vol. 1, 657–672. Oxford: Elsevier. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Galloway, Nicola & Heath Rose
2015 Introducing global Englishes. New York: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Gerritsen, Marinel & Frank Jansen
1982 The interplay between diachronic linguistics and dialectology: Some refinements of Trudgill’s formula. In John Peter Maher, Allan R. Bomhard & E. F. K. Koerner (eds.), Papers from the 3rd International Conference on Historical Linguistics, 11–38. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Hale, Mark
2007 Historical linguistics: Theory and method. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Harris, John
1985 Phonological variation and change: Studies in Hiberno-English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hernández-Campoy, Juan Manuel & Juan Camilo Conde-Silvestre
(eds.) 2012 The handbook of historical sociolinguistics. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hinskens, Frans, Peter Auer & Paul Kerswill
2005 The study of dialect convergence and divergence: Conceptual and methodological considerations. In Peter Auer, Frans Hinskens & Paul Kerswill (eds.), Dialect change: Convergence and divergence in European languages, 1–50. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hock, Hans Henrich
1991 Principles of historical linguistics (2nd edn.). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hock, Hans Henrich & Brian D. Joseph
1996/2009 Language history, language change, and language relationship (1st/2nd edn.). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Hockett, Charles
1958 A course in modern linguistics. New York: MacMillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1965 Sound change. Language 41. 185–204. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hoenigswald, Henry M.
1960 Language change and linguistic reconstruction. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Honeybone, Patrick & Joseph Salmons
(eds.) 2015 The Oxford handbook of historical phonology. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hopper, Paul J. & Elizabeth Closs Traugott
1993 Grammaticalization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Itkonen, Esa
1982 Short-term and long-term teleology in linguistic change. In John Peter Maher, Allan R. Bomhard & E. F. K. Koerner (eds.), Papers from the 3rd International Conference on Historical Linguistics, 85–118. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Janda, Richard D. & Brian D. Joseph.
2003 On language, change, and language change —or, of history, linguistics, and historical linguistics. The handbook of historical linguistics, ed. by Brian D. Joseph & Richard D. Janda, 3–180. Oxford: Blackwell. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jeffers, Robert & Ilse Lehiste
1979 Principles and methods for historical linguistics. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Joseph, Brian D.
1982 Multiple causation in language contact change. Published in microfiche in ERIC (Educational Resources Information Center) Database by ERIC Clearinghouse on Languages and Linguistics, document #ED205021, February 1982 (pp.17).
1983 The synchrony and diachrony of the Balkan infinitive: A study in areal, general, and historical linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (Reissued in paperback 2009).Google Scholar
Joseph, Brian D. & Richard D. Janda
(eds.) 2003 The handbook of historical linguistics. Oxford: Blackwell. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Keller, Rudi
1994 On language change: The invisible hand in language. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Kerswill, Paul & Eivind Torgersen
2005 Endogeneous linguistic change in inner-London teenage speech as the generator of vowel innovations: Implications for models of innovation, levelling and diffusion. Paper presented at NWAV34, New York University, October 2005 Online: [URL].
King, Robert D.
1969 Historical linguistics and generative grammar. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Labov, William
1965 On the mechanism of linguistic change. Georgetown Monographs on Language and Linguistics 18. 91–114.Google Scholar
1994 Principles of linguistic change, vol. 1: Internal factors. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
2001 Principles of linguistic change, vol. 2: Social factors. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
2006 The social stratification of English in New York City (2nd edn.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2007 Transmission and diffusion. Language 83. 344–387. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2010 Principles of linguistic change, vol. 3: Cognitive and cultural factors. Oxford: Blackwell. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lass, Roger
1997 Historical linguistics and language change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lehmann, Winfred
1992 Historical linguistics (3rd edn.). London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Maher, John Peter, Allan R. Bomhard & E. F. K. Koerner
(eds.) 1982 Papers from the 3rd International Conference on Historical Linguistics. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
McMahon, April
1994 Understanding language change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ohala, John J.
1981 The listener as a source of sound change. Chicago Linguistic Society (Parasession on language and behavior) 17(2). 178–203.Google Scholar
Ringe, Donald & Joseph F. Eska
2013 Historical linguistics: Toward a twenty-first century reintegration. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Roberge, Paul T.
2012 The teleology of change: Functional and non-functional explanations for language variation and change. The handbook of historical sociolinguistics, ed. by Juan Manuel Hernández-Campoy and Juan Camilo Conde-Silvestre, 369–386. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sapir, Edward
1921 An introduction to the study of speech. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co.Google Scholar
Sihler, Andrew
2000 Language history: An introduction. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tagliamonte, Sali A. & Alexandra D’Arcy
2009 Peaks beyond phonology: Adolescence, incrementation, and language change. Language 85. 58–108. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Thomason, Sarah Grey & Terrence Kaufman
1988 Language contact, creolization, and genetic linguistics. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Thráinsson, Höskuldur
2012 How do languages change? Talk presented at Boston University April 23, 2012. Online: [URL].Google Scholar
Trask, R. L.
1994 Language change. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
1996 Historical linguistics. London: Arnold.Google Scholar
Unger, J. Marshall
1997 Review of Frellesvig 1995. Diachronica 14. 363–366. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wang, William S-Y
1969 Competing changes as a cause of residue. Language 45. 9–25. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Weber, Tobias
2014 Principles in the emergence and evolution of linguistic features in World Englishes. Hamburg: Anchor Academic Publishing.Google Scholar
Wehmeyer, Ann
1998 Book Notice on Frellesvig 1995. Language 74. 681–682.Google Scholar
Weinreich, Uriel
1953 Languages in contact: Findings and problems. New York: Linguistic Circle of New York.Google Scholar
Weinreich, Uriel, William Labov & Marvin I. Herzog
1968 Empirical foundations for a theory of language change. In Winfred P. Lehmann & Yakov Malkiel (eds.), Directions for historical linguistics: A symposium, 97–195. Austin: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 4 other publications

Joseph, Brian D.
2020. Historical Morphology – Overview and Update. In The Handbook of Historical Linguistics, ► pp. 63 ff. DOI logo
Joseph, Brian D.
2022. Language Contact and Historical Linguistics. In The Cambridge Handbook of Language Contact, ► pp. 43 ff. DOI logo
Lavidas, Nikolaos
2023. Introduction. In Internal and External Causes of Language Change, ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2022. Language Contact and Genetic Linguistics. In The Cambridge Handbook of Language Contact, ► pp. 41 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 23 april 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.