This book looks at the relationship between linguistic universals and language change. Reflecting the resurgence of work in both fields over the last two decades, it addresses two related issues of central importance in linguistics: the balance between synchronic and diachronic factors in accounting for universals of linguistic structure, and the means of distinguishing genuine aspects of a universal human cognitive capacity for language from regularities that may be traced to extraneous origins. The volume brings together specially commissioned work by leading scholars, including prominent representatives of generative and functional linguistics. It examines rival explanations for linguistic universals and assesses the effectiveness of competing models of language change. The authors investigate patterns and processes of grammatical and lexical change across a wide range of languages; they consider the degree to which common characteristics condition processes of change in related languages; and examine how far differences in linguistic outcomes may be explained by cultural or external factors. This book will interest the wide range of scholars in linguistics and related fields concerned with language change, historical linguistics, linguistic typology and universals, and the nature of the human language faculty

1. Introduction, Jeff Good Part I Universals and Change: General Perspectives 2. Universals Constrain Change; Change Results in Typological Generalizations, Paul Kiparsky 3. On the Explanation of Typologically Unusual Structures, Alice C. Harris Part II Phonological Universals: Variation, Change, and Structure 4. Consonant Epenthesis: Natural and Unnatural Histories, Juliette Blevins 5. Formal Universals as Emergent Phenomena: The Origins of Structure Preservation, Joan L. Bybee Part III Morphological Relationships: The Shape of Paradigms 6. Paradigmatic Uniformity and Markedness, Andrew Garrett 7. Explaining Universal Tendencies and Language Particulars in Analogical Change, Adam Albright Part IV Morphosyntactic Patterns: The Form of Grammatical Markers 8. Creating Economical Morphosyntactic Patterns in Language Change, Martin Haspelmath 9. On the Explanatory Value of Grammaticalization, Tania Kuteva and Bernd Heine Part V Phrase Structure: Modelling the Development of Syntactic Constructions 10. The Classification of Constituent Order Generalizations and Diachronic Explanation, John Whitman 11. Emergent Serialization in English: Pragmatics and Typology, Paul J. Hopper Part VI Conclusion 12. Universals and Diachrony: Some Observations, Johanna Nichols References Index