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Part of
New Trends in Grammaticalization and Language Change
Edited by Sylvie Hancil, Tine Breban and José Vicente Lozano
[Studies in Language Companion Series 202] 2018
► pp. 75–104

Analogy

Its role in language learning, categorization, and in models of language change such as grammaticalization and constructionalization

| University of Amsterdam

This paper investigates and surveys the role played by analogy in language learning and processing, and its position in models of change such as grammaticalization and diachronic construction grammar. I will illustrate the importance of analogy by looking at Hermann Paul’s Prinzipien der Sprachgeschichte (1880), indicating that his ideas on how languages are learned and change are closely connected and pervaded by analogical notions. These ideas have recently become current again, after long neglect within linguistic models since the 1950s, and now form the basis for experiments and recent work in cognitive science. The presence of analogy in change will be highlighted through a review of a number of recent diachronic studies, where I will argue that analogy helps to explain the development of the new constructions there investigated.*

Keywords: analogy, categorization, constructionalization, language learning, networks, system mapping
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Analogy in usage-based models: Construction grammar and grammaticalization
  • 3.Analogy
    • 3.1Analogy and Herman Paul’s Prinzipien der Sprachgeschichte (1880 [1909])
    • 3.2Analogy and cognitive science
  • 4.The influence of analogy in morphosyntactic change
    • 4.1A case study where analogy is not given a primary role
    • 4.2Case studies where analogy is given a primary role
  • 5.A brief conclusion
  • Acknowledgement
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 6 December 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.202.04fis
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