Íslenskt mál og almenn málfræði - 01.01.2008, Page 54

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Margrét Guðmundsdóttir
SUMMARY
Keywords: language, I-language, E-language, linguistic change, diffusion, genera-
tive grammar
This paper discusses linguistic change from the point of view of generative grammar.
It outlines the difference between I-language and E-language and how linguistic
change can either refer to change of I-language or E-language. Change in I-language
refers to the origin of change, the innovation itself, whereas change in E-language has
to do with the change of language over a period of time. Different branches of lin-
guistics are concemed with each type. Generativists have typically been interested in
change in I-language whereas “language-historians” (be they traditional linguists or
sociolinguists) are interested in change in E-language, i.e. diffusion of change. But
diffusion is in fact also interesting from a generative point of view, although the
research questions will be different. “Language historians” investigate the diffusion
of change in time and space whereas the question why a given change is adopted by
other language users may be of generative interest. A model of linguistic change is
discussed (cf. also Anderson 1973, Lightfoot 1979, Hale 2007) and the question is
raised how one can explain why certain innovations arise. It is argued that even if
many innovations arise through some sort of misinterpretation of the available data
by children acquiring language, there has to be a reason for this misinterpretation
since children have a great ability to acquire language on the basis of relatively scant
evidence. Linguists have to look for this reason in their search for explanation of
change and this can be done by trying to look at the available evidence from the point
of view of the child acquiring the language at any given time. Some examples are pre-
sented in order to show that by looking at certain relationships within the linguistic
system, one can see how seemingly unrelated changes can influence the appearance
of the primary linguistic data available to the child.
This paper is on the one hand intended as a contribution to the discussion of lin-
guistic change in Icelandic, where there is a long tradition of historical linguistic
(especially by “language historians”), and on the other as a contribution to the lively
ongoing discussion among generativists of linguistic change.
Margrét Guðmundsdóttir
Háskóla íslands
Aðalbyggingu
IS-101 Reykjavík, ísland
mgu@hi.is