Internally‐ and Externally‐Motivated Language Change

Abstract

The field of historical sociolinguistics has been well served in recent years. There are several volumes which deal with this topic, starting with the seminal study Romaine (1982) and culminating in the monograph by Nevalainen and RaumolinBrunberg (2003). There have been edited volumes such as Jahr (ed., 1998), special issues of journals like Conde-Silvestre and Hernandez-Compoy (eds, 2005) and individual studies carrying the label ‘historical sociolinguistics’ in their titles, e.g. Bergs (2005). There is a network of scholars engaged in historical sociolinguistics and continuing work in the field is attested by forthcoming publications such as McColl-Millar (in press). Given this range of research it would seem appropriate to consider just what changes in language fall within the orbit of historical sociolinguistics. It would appear to be a consensus opinion that all types of external change should be included here and by implication internal changes would be excluded. The relationship between these two sources of change has been pursued in a number of dedicated publications, e.g. Gerritsen and Stein (eds, 1992), Dorian (1993), Yang (2000), Pargman (2002), Jones and Esch (eds, 2002), Torgersen and Kerswill (2004). In overviews of historical linguistics the issue is generally examined, for example in Chapter 11 of Campbell (2004), ‘Explaining Linguistic Change’, there is a section entitled ‘Internal and External Causes’ (Campbell 2004: 316-326); in Croft (2001: 166-174) there is a section ‘Communities, societies and the internal/external distinction in language change’, to mention two well-known overviews of historical linguistics and language change of the past decade. Sources of change are also central to the comprehensive, three-volume work by Labov (1994-2010), especially in the first two volumes.