As always, it is both an honor and a pleasure to speak at the forum of the Linguistic
stitute.
In the present case, my pleasure is veiy much enhanced
particular
Institute,
Nonwestern
which is "Language
Form and Language
In-
by the theme of this
Function:
A Western and
Perspective."
It is all too tempting
for us to draw conclusions
about what human language is like
based on the samples of language we most commonly
encounter
here in the West.
Let me give just one example of this western bias, one with immediate importance.
Under
the
impact
thographies,
of Western
constructed
senting language.
languages,
on phonetic
This assumption
be all the more misleading.
it is often
segments,
assumed
are the optimal
system
or-
for repre-
is mostly made tacitly, to be sure, and thus it may
On the other hand, orthographies
found outside the West, such as syllabaries or logographs,
underdeveloped
that alphabetic
based on other units,
are felt in some way to be
or retarded, and doomed to fall in time to the ultimate and inevitable tri-
umph of the alphabet.
But clearly this is an issue that is much too important to be assumed
skewed sample of just the Western languages.
serious work is beginning
considerations
Hopefully,
to note, though,
to be done on the question of optimal orthography,
of language
an increasing
It is encouraging
a priori on the
structure
amount
and
psychological
of involvement
experiments
will be forthcoming
that
based on
on reading.1
from linguists
in
such research.
So the moment is long due that we extend our focus beyond the familiar scene of
Western languages
in a serious way.
In this respect,
it is reassuring to look through the
catalog of this Linguistic Institute, with its rich array of courses on the languages and linguistics of Africa and Asia.
their effort in highlighting
The planners of this Institute deserve our warm thanks for
a more balanced perspective on the study of human language.
The topic I was assigned to discuss this evening is 'Language Change'.
volves the differences
between two or more states in time.
would be to reveal the principles according
and to discover
the mechanisms
make some observations
first it is necessary
which
Presumably
to which these differences
brought
to distinguish
the goal here
are implemented,
about these differences.
on both of these issues of implementation
Change in-
I hope to
and actuation.
But
change along several time scales, for it seems that the~
This paper is prepared while I am a Guggenheim fellow visiting Osmania University in India. Thanks are
due both to the Guggenheim Foundation and Bh. Krishnamurti of Osmania University for their support and
encouragement. I would also like to acknowledge the many years of camaraderie and collaboration of C.
C. Cheng, which were critical ingredients in the progression from idea to data to knowledge on language
change.
4.1
4 The Three Scales of Diachrony
61
questions. the data, and the methods would not be the same for all these scales.
Microhistory
For convenience
mesohistory,
I will refer to the three time scales
and macrohistory.
are all aspects
reckoned
of exposition,
as microhistory,
They 'all deal with change across time and therefore
of the diachronic
study of language.
The microhistory
across a very thin slice of time, in years or decades.
William Labov (1972) calls 'change in progress',
of language
It is concerned
which offers a diachronic
is
with what
way of look-
ing at synchronic variation.
In the microhistory
The sociolinguist
of language the interests
focuses
his attention
of several research
on groups
of people,
age, by sex, by region, and by social background.
find the model and the copies, the unchanged
an orderly profusion,
noted
language
vying for survival.2
differences,
areas converge.
as -these are divided by
Typically, within so short a period we
and the changed,
By correlating
existing side by side in
the social parameters
we may hope to make some short-term
with the
predictions
which of the various usages of today will continue into the language of tomorrow
on
(Wein-
reich et al. 1968).
Closely related to these questions
increase
in population
community,
tained.
whatever
Diversity
biological
and mobility,
credibility
further heterogeneity
With the rapid
the notion of a pure and homogeneous
it may have once held, cannot
is the fundamental
systems;
is the study of language contact.
ingredient
realistically
be main-
as is well recognized
for
this dogma is no less true for linguistic systems at every level.
The
that contact produces
of change,
speech
adds yet new dimensions
to the challenges
of the student of language change.
Among these various groups of people there is a very special class, with a unique
biological
guage
and social status
-the
transmission
-and
across generations
the whole of language change.
use changes
these are the very young.
-is
biological
capacity
togeny hardly ever recapitulates
clearly one of the vital questions
Unlike that of the other groups,
not only as a function of differences
of an increasing
How children learn lan-
in environment,
the language
with fidelity.
maturation.
Nevertheless,
can be gained here that may prove useful toward understanding
children
but also as a function
due to neural and motor-sensory
phylogeny
in
On-
some insights
the processes
of lan-
guage evolution.
Until recently,
theorizing
on language acquisition,
especially within the framework
generative
grammar,
has been often cast in rather global terms
categories
of sounds and the addition and reorganization
of rules.
-in
of
terms of whole
However,
more fine-
grained work done in this area, by Ferguson and Farwell (1975), and Hsieh (1972), and
others,
histories
clearly show that the real situation is much more complex,
both within the case
of each individual child, and in the strategies and development
across different
62 LANGUAGE CHANGE
children.
Some children,
for instance,
are extraordinarily
with new sounds and new sequences.
cal behavior,
and produce
pliable and are eager to experiment
Others are more conservative
in their phonologi-
only forms that they have a good chance of getting right;
they seem to prefer learning and using those words in which they have phonetic
fidence, while avoiding others.
Linguistic perso'nalities,
quite an early age, and these differences
ces on their adult language behavior.
dividual differences
an important
con-
it would seem, are manifested
at
in strategy may very well have lasting influen-
There is reason to expect that some of the in-
in the language of adults can be traced back to the early years.
It is
finding that these differences can be detected even during the learning of
the first several consonants,
as is shown in some recent work of Ferguson for the ac-
quisition of English laterals, reported in Fillmore, Kempler, and Wang (1979).
From such fine-grained
research,
it emerges clearly that there is a primacy
of lexical
,
development.
Even a relatively small scale sampling of the
learning during phonological
sort done by Ferguson
units like phonemes
repertoire.
and Farwell shows that the child does not progress
or allophones,
but rather by gradually
The same sound in similar contexts
tories, as this sound appears in different words,
by learning
adding lexical items to his
may undergo
altogether
This is clearly demonstrated
different hisin Table 1.
These data in the table are extracted from the study of Ferguson and Farwell, who followed with great care the development
words.
The data are of one child's progression
span of some four weeks.
variation
of three children who were learning their first fifty
according
Table 1. A child's acquisition
Session
VI
baby
book
bye-bye
brv
ball
blanket
b
b
b
bounce
bang
box
13
brv 0
brv
The unity of the phoneme
only emerges
process when mastery is complete.
of some b-initial words in four weeks (based on Ferguson and Farwell 1975)
Session
VII
b' 'w~
bQ'
ph
'13
b
b
b
J ph
Session
VIII
Session
b
b
b
b
b
b
b'
b
13
IX
b
b
a
They show how different words exhibit different patterns of
to different schedules,
the end of the acquisition
in the acquisition of initial b -across
b
at
4 The Three Scales of Diachrony 63
The basic unit of acquisition,
scious, or subconscious,
something
like the word.
The awareness,
of phonetic identity or similarity between portions
that comes. to
probably
then, is something
different
cannot be attributed
children
in completely
idiosyncratic
to any single uniform stage of development.
con-
of words, is
ways,
and
This theme
of lexical primacy is central to my remarks there, and I will return to it later.
4.2 Mesohistory
As opposed
to microhistory,
the great bulk of the literature of language change actually
deals with the middle time scale.
with changes
Historical linguistics has traditionally
that occur across centuries
or millenia.
concerned
itself
Since it reaches further back in
time, the primary data for language history are much more uneven and uncertain.
Writ-
ten records of early languages are low in both quality and quantity, and only in a handful
of cases
do they extend
reconstruction
for more than 2 or 3 thousand
have their intrinsic limitations.
years.
Most of us would
The methods
probably
of
agree with
Kiparsky (1976) when he set the outer limits at 10 to 20 thousand years Ilover which we
can hope to reconstruct
A classic question
anything at all about Proto-language."
in language mesohistory,
dating back to at least the neogram-
marians, has been the manner or means by which a change is implemented.
tion has caught the attention
of a wide gamut of scholars through
Henry Sweet to Alf Sommarfelt and Sapir, to Hoenigswald
The received
doctrine
terized as phonetically
changes,
it changes
on this question
hypothesis,
changes
of words,
in pronunciation
The idea is, that once a phoneme
to the same schedule.
the regularity of the change, the so-called
by definition.
and since languages
overnight,
from
and Halle.
in all the relevant words according
would follow as a consequence
volve hundreds
the decades,
has long been one which may be charac-
gradual and lexically abrupt.
claim of lexical abruptness,
This ques-
By the
neogrammarian
But since a change may in-
do not seem to effect such wholesale
the phonetic
gradualness
becomes
a necessary
corollary of lexical abruptness.
So the notion of lexical abruptness
is motivated
ways regular, and the notion of phonetic gradualness
cal abruptness.
tions,
is necessitated
the most widespread
as well as the structuralist phonology
acceptance
by believing in lexi-
Empirical investigations
using large quantities
in the work
in generative
that preceded it.
But here again, as was the case in the mlcrohistory
simple.
are al-
And it is essentially this doctrine of historical change, with minor varia-
that has retained
phonology
by believing that changes
of language,
things are not that
over the past decade or so on a variety of languages,
of data, have shown that there are changes
mented in a manner that is lexically gradual.
which are imple-
That is, a change may initiate on a handful
of words in the lexicon, where these words do not constitute any natural phonological
morphosyntactic
class.
Then the change affects an increasing
or
sector of the lexicon in
~
t5
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r:I:
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x
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f'..
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0
ro
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.c
x
x
x
x
x
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x
x
::J
0
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x
x
x
Q)
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::J
0
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c:
ro
'x
.-ro
Q)
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CJ) 0>
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u
c:
ro
-.ro
-'.c_c:
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(/)
c:
ro
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c:
ro
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c:
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U)
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c:
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ro
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c:
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ro
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c:
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c:
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I-
4 The Three Scales of Diachrony 65
time, perhaps eventually completing
particular
change ever completes
its course on all relevant words.
its course depends
of which are outside the linguistic system.
gree of regularity
that sound
changes
Whether or not a
on a whole host of factors,
some
Vve can get at least a rough idea of the de-
exhibit from a study that C. C. Cheng and I
(Cheng and Wang 1971) did on the development
of initial consonants
in Chinese over
the past 1400 years, shown in Table 2.
Time and again, scholars
respondences
are embarrassingly
bering the regular ones.
tions.
of sound change have observed
numerous,
frequently
Table 2 gives a rough quantitative
(ca. 600 A.D.) into one of the contemporary
index for these observa-
of one Middle Chinese
dialects.
cell in Table
2, then,
regularity was not reached
is one of the 'embarrassingly
-and
initial
When the development
is indeed perfectly regular, the cell is marked with an 'x'; otherwise
blank
to cor-
the irregular reflexes outnum-
Each cell in the table refers to the development
consonant
that exceptions
it is left blank.
numerous'
Each
cases where
there are indeed many of them.
A particular change, for various reasons, may even reverse its course.
Tore Janson
(1977) has studied such a ca~e in the deletion of final -d in the Swedish of Stockholm,
where he attributes the reversal to the influence of orthography.
of implementation
At any rate, this picture
which involves a gradual change across the lexicon, which mayor
may not result in complete regularity, has been called lexical diffusion (Wang 1969).
Since lexical diffusion is a process via which a change is implemented,
ciple accessible to any change, however the change is actuated,
i.e. whether the aptua-
tion is external or internal to the system under change, or whether
analogically triggered,
An interesting
the actuation
Tibetan verbs.
relations
homophony,
case of lexical diffusion has been reported
a change
homophonous
of homophony
that reduced
and the hierarchy
dominates
or
by Lyovin (1977), where
within the inflectional paradigm
The study is of particular theoretical significance
ing to which periphrastic
tense
it is phonetically
etc.
is due to the avoidance
between
it is in prin-
the
causes
of verb categories which controls the schedule
accord-
past tense,
clusters,
are created to avoid the homophony.
for instance,
due to cluster reduction,
from the inflectional paradigm.
because of the intricate
which
expressions
initial consonant
of
so when
the two
The present
forms
become
it is the past tense form that gets' displaced
Similarly, the past tense form dominates the future tense
form, and it is the latter that gets displaced when homophony
occurs.
In each case, the
meaning of the displaced form has to be expressed periphrastically.
Lyovin's examination
Tibetan
of the data across the various categories
led him to observe
that "homophony-inducing
lexical items or classes
of verbs in Classical
sound change will be blocked
from applying
to certain
of lexical items until compensatory
developments
permit the further diffusion of the shifts in question (p. 129)."
Another study in lexical diffusion that raises important theoretical issues is the investigation
of O. Robinson
(1977) on Swiss German vowels.
Two historical
changes
are
66
LANGUAGE CHANGE
relevant, as shown in the diagram.
Robinson
umlaut
a
t
~
rounding
~re
umlaut
~~--
notes that the "rounding
~
rule was diachronically
Both rules continue to operate synchronically
to lre/'s,
then the la/'s which are subject to the umlaut rule should change
these la/'s actually
But in almost all of the northern dialects,
umlaut to 151's, presumably
via I:J/. Furthermore,
that rounds lrel into 151 would not be possible;
For this interesting
phenomenon,
Robinson
adopts
rules have reversed their diachronic
to rounding
-umlaut.
The data of relevance
concrete
would expect la rv 51. Robinson's
changes
planation
is the extension
arguments
is diffusing
or vowel shift.
of the process
e.g. Kesswil,
of these re-alternations
across the lexicon,
These re-alternations,
The theoretical
his explanation,
against some alternative solutions,
is that
much as
then, are forms
significance
of lexical diffusion to operate
To support
that the
order, that is, from umlaut -rounding
explanation
has not reached as yet.
abstract level of sound change.
emplary
interpretation,
alternation la rvrei, when the reordering
an abstract change,
like d-deletion
which the reordering
Kiparsky's
rule
by other data.
here have to do with certain northern dialects,
where many forms exhibit the morphophonemic
though
a synchronic
it would be contradicted
synchronic
rule reordering,
alternations.
in the order in which they entered the lan-
and thus escape the rounding rule.
hypothesis
much later than umlaut."
in morphophonemic
Now if the rules applied synchronically
guage diachronically,
j
of this ex-
at a relatively
Robinson gives some ex-
including the possibility
of bor-
Work on lexical diffusion over the past decade has shown that the traditional
view of
rowing these re-alternations
sound change
well proceed
surveyed
has been excessively restrictive,
and that the implementation
along other paths than one which is lexically abrupt.
This work has been
At this stage, there is less need to document
Rather, our next challenge,
additional
lexical and phonetic
also be considered
parameters,
in investigating
Two other directions
cases of lexical
there is the additional
statistical
In addition to the
parameter'that
must
the many paths of sound change.
of current research in this area should also be mentioned,
view of the very promising
in
it seems to me, is to solve the puzzle of what kind
of sound change would travel along which path for its ilT.plementation.
relationship
may very
in Chen and Wang (1975) and Wang (1976, 1979), and partly anthologized
Wang (1977).
diffusion.
from other dialects.
results obtained
of the relative frequency
so far.
One is the demonstration
of words to their schedules
of change,
in
of the
as dis-
4 The Three Scales of Diachronv
cussed
by Hooper (1977) for English, and Gerritsen and Jansen (1978) for Dutch.
though such a relationship
recently
has been hypothesized
laggers in an analogic change like the weakening
identify independent
predictions
but are
If we can continue to
profiles of change (relative frequen-
then perhaps the goal of being able to make short term
in sound change will be eventually attainable, after all.
The other direction
that I'll briefly allude to has to do with subgrouping
Since it has been assumed
cally abrupt,
it follows that for any change in question,
processes
may be at work,
much more information.
binary yardstick.
But once we recognize
then some changes
Swadesh's
that dif-
at least can be exploited
measures
method of lexicostatistics.
can be made on various
on the basis of both changed
the effectiveness
a particufar group of languages
for
Indeed, as Hsieh pointed out in his seminal article (1973), this
was the insight underlying
quantitative
languages.
in the bulk of historical work that sound changes are aillexi-
either shares the change or not -a
guages
of strong verbs.
variables for the chronological
cy being one such variable),
yardst[ck,
dic-
It is of special ,importance that Hooper has been able to show that high fre-
quency words in English are leaders in a phonetic change like schwa-deletion,
fusion
Al-
at least since a century ago, it is only
that it can be objectively tested as a result of the availability of frequency
tionaries.
67
of this approach
and unchanged
Instead of a binary
subgroupings
cognates.
of the,lan-
Hsieh demonstrated
on the Wu dialects of eastern China by using a single
tone change.
More recently,
Bh. Krishnamurti
some yet unpublished
methodology
work,
(1978) and Krishnamurti
have made important
for the subgrouping
problem.
progress
and his colleagues,
in developing
a suitable
Using the Dravidian Etymological
Dictionary
as the starting point, they have analyzed a large amount of computerized
mine the genetic relationships
indication
in
data to deter-
among various languages of South India. There is every
that their procedures
will prove fruitful when validated against linguistic situa-
tions where the answers are known, at which point they can be used in situations where
no answers are available (for unwritten languages, for example).
4.3 Macrohistory
In considering
language change within the largest time perspective,
are faced with the greatest challenges
available.
Furthermore,
-since
the necessary
side of the typical domain of linguistics.
that work on related questions,
zoology,
and so on.
speech, sponsored
backgrounds
and methods
such as anthropology,
by the N.Y. Academy
the excellent discussion
are frequently
So we need to look into neighboring
conference
of this conference
we
the relevant primary data are mostly not
An example of the interdisciplinary
area is the very successful
its macrohistory,
biology, ethology,
convergence
in the origin and evolution
out-
disciplines
psychology,
of interest in this
of language
and
of Sciences in 1975 (Harnad et al. 1976).
See
by Hill and Most (1978).
68 LANGUAGE CHANGE-
A useful assumption
to make here, one which most investigators
accept, is that lan-
guage did not abruptly
burst into the course of human evolution fully in the state of in-
tricacy
and complexity
that we find it today.
theory,
that there was some sudden wholesale
transformed
muteness
into eloquence
To believe the so-called
genetic mutation
is to relegate
mystical regions of miracles and spontaneous
discontinuity
that in a fell swoop
macrolinguistic
research
to the
creations.3
Rather, there must have been a very long course of emergence,
much longer than
the span of time over which current methods of historical linguistics can take us. During
this emergent
ments,
state, protolanguage
by either
species.
homology
probably
or analogy,
of how the ingredients
lated piece by piece over the hundreds
One category
of ingredients
presumably
in all languages,
prominent
Gordon
of human language were accumu-
of millennia.
Although
gestures
are used across
because of the shared anatomy.
time-locked
to various
extents;
role in the early communications
including
category
of ingredients
is the use of prosodic features
are probably
recent investigations
amplitude modulation,
Gestures accompany
of very young children.
speech
relatively
more
Phylogenetically,
the view that human language
that is also widespread
-fundamental
exploited
frequency,
in communication
duration, and intensity.
more fully in bird song than anywhere
frequency modulation,
development
and the use of formants.
that prosodic
take place over larger territories
across foliage),
have over gestures:
no visual contact
while the rest of the body can be engaged
tivities (such as running
communication
features
requiring
or fighting).
So it is reasonable
gradually expanded in importance
As the civilization
larger sets of signals with which to communicate
for purposes
can easily see how groups
such as
In human evoluThere are certain
Communication
(such as in darkness
in other simultaneous
can
or
ac-
to expect that the prosodic
complex, however,
the expanding
he needed
vocabulary
of mes-
facilitates the planning and execution of group activities,
such as hunting for food or defense against predators
chances of survival.
else, though
relative to the gestures.
of early man became increasingly
Since communication
These
of the increased use of the hands for fighting
and carrying with the increased use of the mouth for communicating.
advantages
systems
on primate calls are revealing a variety of new ingredients,
tion, there was a correlated
sages.
several facial ex-
in gestures.
Another
obvious
a wide range of
they also playa
Hewes (1973), among others, has championed
originated
of other
of these other systems will con-
we share many specific ones with other primates,
pressions,
systems
that has been present since the early stages of emer-
is the use of gestures.
species,
features
with the communication
So it is likely that sorting out the ingredients
tribute to our understanding
gence
at different times shared various develop-
that have developed
better language
or other tribes, we
would have better
Everything else being equal, better language enables the formation
of larger (and hence stronger)
groups,
the transmission
of more precise and varied in-
4 The Three Scales of Diachrony
formation
group
across
both space and time, and the perpetuation
of users of that language.
favored
those
populations
Biologically
speaking,
69
of the gene pool of the
then, selectional
with better tools for communication
pressures
in probabi.y much the
same way that they favored better tools for digging or fighting.4
As the message
set grew, the three prosodic
carriers for the signals.
ly changed
into
supralaryngeal
prosody,
A phonology
a segmental
gestures.
parameters
that was largely prosodic
one,
making
use of the
transition
insufficient
(and laryngeal)
richer
alone have taken.
It has been proposed
was made possible by the phylogenetic
scent was a special adaptation
for speech.
before
erect posture.
the linguistic
preadaptation.
In any case,
prosody
that is the critical step which our
by P. Lieberman
(1975) that this
descent of the larynx, and that the de-
segmental
responses
use,
it would
phonology
searches
on communicating
that the human
be more accurate
grew
dominant
dominated
tinue to co-exist in every language today, functio~ing
of the transition
body had to
into segmental
gestures.
to call it a case of
just as the
All three systems
in mutually supplementary
phonology
including the processing
have next to zero ability at producing
was largely
over prosody,
is highlighted
with apes. Whereas chimpanzees
tive abilities at symbolization,
in the head
In this latter view, where the structure
in an earlier stage of emergence
The importance
of the
A more plausible view'to my mind is that the
and neck, was one of the many mechanical
available
eventual-
possibilities
descent of the larnyx, as well as a whole host of other skeletal restructurings
make in assuming
as
Whereas other primates share with us the use of gestures and
it is the transition from prosody to segmentals
ancestors
became
conways.
by recent re-
show remarkable
cogni-
of complex sentence types, they
controlled segmental sounds.
From an evolution-
ary perspective,
that critical step which early man took in pairing messages with the par-
ticular
of consonants
speech,
medium
the 'indispensable
and vowels was the start of the journey
foundation'
upon which language is built.
that led to
Judging from the
amount of new brain tissue in the cortex that appears to be involved with language,
that
step must have been taken quite some time ago (cf. A. Liberman 1974).
Although there may never be any way of documenting
Imagine
change
how it could
have come
that can be observed
called 'phonologization.'
words is distinguished
about by referring
in recent times.
to processes
At time t1, one group of
from another group in that the former group has the phoneme
For reasons of coarticulation,
X and Y act upon
distinctive, and may not even be noticed.
a merger take place by the time t2, when X> Y, then the two groups
E" becomes
X
in different ways, i.e. XE' but YE", even though at t1 the difference be-
tween E' and E" is not considered
longer distinguished
of phonological
These are of the type that has been
Typically what happens is as follows.
while the latter has the phoneme Y.
their environments
the transition directly, we can
But should
of words are no
by X and Y, but now by E' and E". The difference between E' and
'phonologized'
at t2 -it
has become phonemic.
70
LANGUAGE CHANGE
There are numerous
such cases in the literature.
Chinese, for one example,
distinct voiced and unvoiced stops in syllable-initial position.
had
Because of coarticulation,
the syllables with voiced stops must have had a different pitch contour from those with
unvoiced
pin.)
stops.
(Compare
Some centuries
the different pitch contours
for the English words bin and
ago, however, the voiced stops merged into the unvoiced
ones.
Now the two groups of words are kept apart no longer by the voicing in the initial stop,
but by the tonal difference that was once caused by that voicing.
The transition
from prosodic
been this straightforward,
time span, probably
conditioned
of course,
utterances
however,
could
not have
and must have taken place over a much longer
accompaniments
by transference.
tals got established,
to segmental
with many false starts in the process.
or spurious
'phonologized'
utterances
The segments
of the prosodies,
started as
and were only eventually
Once the pairing between messages and the segmenlanguage
must have evolved at an explosive pace, given
the much greater signalling potential and physiological
economy of a segmental phonol-
ogy over alternative media.
Over the past several years there has been some significant research into the sign
language
of the deaf.
This work is of fundamental
importance
for the light it sheds on
language viewed from a different modality,
and thereby giving us a broader perspective
on human communication.
have been done on comparing
production
and perception
Experiments
of speech with those of sign language.
While such experi-
ments are of great intrinsic interest, it should be clear that certain questions
macrohistory
cannot be directly answered from their reslJlts.
pletely demonstrated
the rates of
of linguistic
For even if it can be com-
that sign language is as effective as speech in every conceivable
way, which I would find totally surprising,
the point remains that the user of the sign lan-
,guage is the direct beneficiary of numerous millennia of language evolution and elaboration that had in fact taken place via speech.
peripheral
can
part of that total neural machinery.
be demonstrated,
developed
The deaf is deprived
The equivalence
between modalities,
tells us that once the full symbolization
in our brain, a surrogate
nothing on whether the surrogate
of only a minor J
system
has
medium may serve as well as speech.
medium had enough to recommend
if it
been
It tells us
it for language to
have evolved into its present state of intricacy and richness, which is clearly a stronger
requirement.
In contrasting
the three scales of diachrony JI have perhaps put too much emphasis
on the differences
between them.
Clearly the three must be related to each other in in-
timate ways, since they are but three different time windows through which we are viewing the same phenomenon.
our knowledge
At present, the facts are scanty.
There are huge gaps in
on the steps in which language evolved through
gent states into the present steady state.
the successive
It is obvious that the study of linguistic univer-
sals must be centrally relevant here in providing a base line for the steady state.
Iy, our understanding
emer-
of the relation between microhistory
Similar-
and the classical concepts
of
4 The Three Scales of Diachrony 71
linguistic
before
change
is spotty at best.
a plausible
scenario
A great deal of basic research
can be provided
needs to be done
for what has been called
'the life and
growth of language'.
Notes
1.
2.
A good beginning is the Cross-Cultural Conference on Language, Reading and Orthography, sponsored by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Bethesda, Md., September
1978. The proceedings are being edited for publication by J. Kavanagh and R. Venezky. An extensive
discussion of Chinese orthography from several viewpoints is available in the Journal of Chinese Linguistics 6.2, 1978; see especially the contribution by Ovid Tzeng et al. for recent psycholinguistic work.
(See also Hardych et al. 1977, 1978.)
Of all the independent variables that influence change, probably the least stable and therefore most difficult ones to capture are the social ones. Note the perceptive couns~1 ,of a poet on this point,
Alexander Pope:
In words, as fashions, the same rule will hold
Alike fantastic, if too new or old
Be not the first by whom the new are tried
Nor yet the last to lay the old aside.
3.
4.
There was, of course, no dearth of proponents for such discontinuity theories
working before evolutionary thinking was developed in biology. See Stam (1976)
critique, especially from mid-18th century through mid-19th century in Europe.
Once languages have reached a more-or-less steady state, these selectional
operate as they did during the emergent state. Labov's observations on language
dysfunctional
(1972:273) are presumably based on the steady state changes,
remarks by Charles Darwin and Max Muller that Labov referred to.
among philosophers
for a useful historical
pressures no longer
diversification being
as indeed were the