Part of
Continuity and Change in GrammarEdited by Anne Breitbarth, Christopher Lucas, Sheila Watts and David Willis
[Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 159] 2010
► pp. 1–10
The present volume brings together 16 contributions selected from papers presented at the conference on Continuity and Change in Grammar that took place at the University of Cambridge 18–20 March 2008. The aim of the conference was to foster an exchange of ideas on various aspects of linguistic transmission in different frameworks (e.g. generative vs. functionalist) in order to enhance our understanding of what makes languages change and what in turn prevents them from changing. This volume is particularly timely, as there has been much interest recently in the topic of continuity, beginning with the publication of Longobardi’s (2001) and Keenan’s (2002) articles on ‘inertia’ as a principle of, or rather, a constraint on language change.