This new perspective on language change looks at a number of developments in the history of sounds and words and explains them in terms of Darwin's evolutionary theory. Nikolaus Ritt demonstrates how the constituents of language can be regarded as mental patterns, or "memes", which copy themselves from one brain to another when communication and language acquisition occur. Challenging established models of linguistic competence, Ritt's controversial approach will stimulate debate among evolutionary biologists, cognitive scientists and linguists.

Product Description: The volume features new work in English historical linguistics. It focuses on Medieval Englishes, but also discusses how processes originating there continued to unfold in later stages of linguistic evolution. In language internal terms, it deals with phonological, morphological, lexical and syntactic constituents...read more

Product Description: Using an innovative theoretical framework, Dr. Ritt describes the phenomenon of the change in vowel length in early Middle English, and sets out to account for its occurrence. He shows that the changes stem from universal principles that govern the way in which humans use speech sounds to communicate...read more

Product Description: This volume presents Middle English studies as a modern discipline which unites linguistics, literature, philology, the history of ideas, textual studies including recent developments in the study of text types and genres, as well as the sociohistorical perspective...read more

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