"While research on language change has formulated robust empirical generalisations about processes and motivations underlying the emergence and spread of linguistic elements, their decline and loss is less well understood. So far a systematic investigation into the processes and motivations of decline and loss in language change is lacking. This book is a first step towards remedying this state of affairs. It brings together a varied set of empirical investigations into decline and loss, spanning morphology, syntax and the lexicon, in different languages. Their authors apply diverse methodologies and represent different theoretical approaches. On the basis of this broad span of studies, authors and editors propose generalisations related to decline and loss and assess similarities and differences with processes and motivations of emergence and spread. The book aims to inspire and provide hypotheses for further studies of decline and loss. It will appeal to historical linguists and others interested in language change"--.

• Lost in Change
• Editorial page
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Table of contents
• Lost in Change
  • 1. Introduction
  • 2. Studying loss: Hypotheses and generalizations
    • 2.1 Data and methods for studying loss
    • 2.2 Modelling loss: Classifications and theories
    • 2.3 The process of loss
    • 2.4 Causes and motivations for loss
    • 2.5 Potential universals
  • 3. Summaries of the contributions in this volume
  • References
• 1. A typological perspective on the loss of inflection
  • 1. Introduction
  • 2. Loss of forms
    • 2.1 Convergence
      • 2.1.1 Phonological change
      • 2.1.2 Morphological change
    • 2.2 Replacement
      • 2.2.1 Functionally motivated change
      • 2.2.2 Formally motivated change
  • 3. Loss of features
    • 3.1 Free variation
    • 3.2 Lexical redistribution
    • 3.3 Paradigmatic redistribution
    • 3.4 Rebranding
  • 4. Loss of cells
  • 5. Grammaticalisation and the loss of inflection
  • 6. Conclusion
  • References
• 2. So-adj-a construction as a case of obsolescence in progress
  • 1. Introduction
  • 2. So-adj-a construction – an example of the Big Mess Construction
    • 2.1 Noun phrases with so-adj predeterminers – their characteristics
  • 3. Diachronic account
    • 3.1 The construction’s origin: A handy stylistic device from the very beginning?
    • 3.2 Frequency of use
      • 3.2.1 Methodology
      • 3.2.2 Results and discussion
  • 4. Grammatical obsolescence
    • 4.1 Negative correlation between time and the frequency of use
    • 4.2 Distributional fragmentation
      • 4.2.1 Methodology
      • 4.2.2 Results and discussion
    • 4.3 Paradigmatic atrophy
    • 4.4 Competition on the constructional level
      • 4.4.1 That-adj-a construction
      • 4.4.2 Competition with the that-adj-a construction: An explanation
      • 4.4.3 Such-a-adj construction
    • 4.5 Larger changes
    • 4.6 Summary of the results
  • 5. Conclusions and outlook
  • Acknowledgements
  • Language corpora
  • Software
  • References
• 3. The impersonal construction in the texts of Updated Old English
  • 1. Introduction
  • 2. Updated Old English
    • 2.1 Scribal practices followed in Updated Old English
    • 2.2 The Updated Old English data for the present study
    • 2.3 The data in their linguistic context
  • 3. The story of the impersonal construction
  • 4. Analysis
    • 4.1 Lexico-semantic characteristics of the impersonal verbs in the sample
    • 4.2 Alterations in the record of the impersonal constructions in the sample
  • 5. Discussion and concluding remarks
  • Acknowledgements
  • References
• 4. Corpus driven identification of lexical bundle obsolescence in Late Modern English
  • 1. Introduction
  • 2. Material
  • 3. Methodology
    • 3.1 Thresholds
    • 3.2 Selection
  • 4. Technical aspects
  • 5. Analysis
    • 5.1 Trash
    • 5.2 Results
      • 5.2.1 Terminology
      • 5.2.2 “Quasi” terminology
      • 5.2.3 Appellations
      • 5.2.4 Legal/administrative phrases
      • 5.2.5 Dating
      • 5.2.6 Pragmatic markers
      • 5.2.7 Replacement in collocations
      • 5.2.8 Countability and accommodation
      • 5.2.9 Complex verb phrase
  • 6. Discussion
  • 7. Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • References
  • Appendix
• 5. A constructional account of the loss of the adverse avertive schema in Mandarin Chinese
  • 1. Introduction
  • 2. Constructions and loss characterised
    • 2.1 Constructions
    • 2.2 Loss as schema loss
  • 3. Prototypicality, construction grammar and diachronic construction grammar
    • 3.1 Prototypicality in ASCs
    • 3.2 Extending prototypicality in ASCs
    • 3.3 Diachronic construction grammar
  • 4. The adverse avertive schema in Chinese
    • 4.1 Data sources
    • 4.2 Overview of the schema
    • 4.3 Slots in the schema
  • 5. The demise of the adverse avertive schema
    • 5.1 Qualitative aspects
    • 5.2 Quantitative aspects
    • 5.3 The demise of the schema: from ‘danger’ to ‘proximity’
    • 5.4 A visual summary
  • 6. Generalisation as loss
  • 7. Conclusion
  • Acknowledgement
  • References
• 6. Loss or variation? Functional load in morpho-syntax – Three case studies
  • 1. Introduction
  • 2. Background
    • 2.1 The Alemannic dialect
    • 2.2 Theoretical background: Loss from a generative perspective
  • 3. The loss of the adnominal genitive in some varieties of German
    • 3.1 The decline of the adnominal genitive
    • 3.2 The loss of the adnominal Genitive
  • 4. German adjectival inflection – A case of optionality
    • 4.1 Why optionality and not loss?
  • 5. Relative clauses
    • 5.1 The Origin of the Alemannic RCIs
  • 6. Discussion
  • Acknowledgements
  • References
• 7. “The next Morning I got a Warrant for the Man and his Wife, but he was fled”
  • 1. Introduction
  • 2. Previous research
    • 2.1 The loss of the be-perfect
    • 2.2 Syntactic loss and social factors
  • 3. Data and methodology
    • 3.1 The Old Bailey Corpus
    • 3.2 Data retrieval and definition of the variable
    • 3.3 Statistical modelling
      • 3.3.1 Bottom-up modelling of stages in diachronic change: Variability-based Neighbour Clustering (VNC)
      • 3.3.2 Modelling predictor variables: Random forests and conditional inference trees
  • 4. Results
    • 4.1 Summary statistics: Overall frequency development
    • 4.2 Variability-based Neighbour Clustering (VNC)
    • 4.3 Social variables
  • 5. Discussion
  • Corpora
  • References
  • Appendix
• 8. On the waning of forms – A corpus-based analysis of decline and loss in adjective amplification
  • 1. Introduction
  • 2. Previous research
  • 3. Data and methodology
    • 3.1 Data sources and processing
    • 3.2 Classification and coding of variables
      • very (dependent variable)
      • Adjective (random effect)
      • Age
      • Gender
      • Education
      • Function
      • Gradability
      • Emotionality
      • Semantic Category
      • Frequency
      • Priming
      • Statistical procedures
  • 4. Results
    • 4.1 Boruta
    • 4.2 Mixed-effects binomial logistic regression model
  • 5. Discussion
  • References
  • Corpora
  • Software
• 9. Decline and loss in the modal domain in recent English
  • 1. Introduction
  • 2. Basic concepts and previous research
    • 2.1 The functions of modal expressions
    • 2.2 Frequency changes in the modal domain in recent English
      • 2.2.1 General development and frequency changes
      • 2.2.2 Frequency changes in the different semantic domains
      • 2.2.3 Importance of genre
  • 3. Losses in the modal domain in recent English
    • 3.1 Decline and loss in COHA (with a focus on may and must)
      • 3.1.1 General background
      • 3.1.2 Data and methods
      • 3.1.3 Quantitative findings and their implications
      • 3.1.4 The role of individual modal constructions
    • 3.2 The demise of the ‘we may say’-construction
      • 3.2.1 General definition
      • 3.2.2 Data and methods
      • 3.2.3 Quantitative findings and their implications
  • 4. General discussion
  • 5. Concluding remarks and outlook
  • References
• 10. German so-relatives
  • 1. Introduction
  • 2. State of research
  • 3. Corpus, data, and method
  • 4. First results: Regions, genres, and styles
    • 4.1 Regions
    • 4.2 Genres
    • 4.3 Styles
  • 5. Socio-historical, cultural, and cognitive context
  • 6. Grammatical, systemic, and typological analysis
    • 6.1 Indistinctness of so
    • 6.2 so-relatives and the changing role of concord
    • 6.3 so-relatives and the reduction of multiple embedding
    • 6.4 Typological drift towards overt complexity
  • 7. Summary and outcome for the study of obsolescence
  • Acknowledgements
  • Corpora
  • References
• 11. Loss of object indexation in verbal paradigms of Koĩc (Tibeto-Burman, Nepal)
  • 1. Introduction
    • 1.1 Overview
    • 1.2 Koĩc, a Kiranti language
    • 1.3 The sociolinguistic situation
    • 1.4 Literature about Koĩc person and number indexes
  • 2. Person and number indexes in Koĩc
    • 2.1 Biactantial indexing
    • 2.2 Subject and object indexes (Genetti 1988)
    • 2.3 Subject indexing in modern Koĩc (Borchers 2008a)
    • 2.4 The former and the current system of indexing arguments
  • 3. Person and number indexes - Additional data
    • 3.1 Konow (1909), Bieri & Schulze (1973) and Rapacha (2005)
    • 3.2 Linguistic Survey of India (Konow 1909)
    • 3.3 Subject and object indexes (Bieri & Schulze 1973)
    • 3.4 Subject indexing in modern Koĩc (Rapacha 2005)
    • 3.5 More data – Better explanations?
  • 4. Loss of morphology – Language change
  • 5. Summary
  • Abbreviations
  • References
  • Appendix: Bahing paradigms
• Index