What this book tries to do

This book is intended for students with some prior training in linguistics. It attempts to integrate three scientific approaches to the analysis of language structure and language change: the Neogrammarian tradition of historical linguistics (especially in its mathematically rigorous codification by the late Henry Hoenigswald), the modern study of language change in progress pioneered by William Labov, and the generative tradition of linguistic theory inaugurated by Noam Chomsky and Morris Halle. In addition, we have tried to adduce some of the rapidly expanding scientific research on language acquisition, since it seems increasingly clear that most language changes arise as errors in native language learning.

Such a synthesis is long overdue. At least in North America, the generative paradigm has become overwhelmingly dominant and Labov's study of language change in progress is recognized as a major subfield of linguistics; a large majority of our colleagues at least recognize that both those lines of research have led to enormous progress, even if numerous details remain the subject of lively debate. If historical linguistics is to benefit from these advances and to offer new insights of its own, it must be reintegrated into the field as a whole. We hope that this book will take that process forward.