Description
This scholarly work by Elly Van Gelderen investigates the mechanisms driving language variation and change, focusing on what linguists call “third factors”—the internal principles of language structure that influence how languages develop and diverge. Moving beyond purely external social and demographic explanations, Van Gelderen demonstrates how cognitive constraints and universal linguistic principles interact with environmental factors to produce the observed patterns of linguistic diversity.
Published by Cambridge University Press, this book synthesizes research from generative linguistics, historical linguistics, and psycholinguistics to provide a comprehensive framework for understanding language evolution. The author examines case studies spanning multiple languages and time periods, illustrating how structural principles guide the pathways of linguistic change. This work is essential for advanced students and researchers seeking to understand the deeper mechanisms underlying language variation.
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