hellog〜英語史ブログ / 2012-09-09

■ #1231. drift 言語変化観の引用を4点 [drift][causation][language_change][popular_passage]

　言語変化の原動力として，drift を想定する言語論者は，今もって少なくない．drift の問題として，特に「#685. なぜ言語変化には drift があるのか (1)」 ([2011-03-13-1]) と「#686. なぜ言語変化には drift があるのか (2)」 ([2011-03-14-1]) の記事で議論したが，近年，新たな視点からこの問題に迫っているのがウィーン大学の Ritt である．Ritt の言語変化観は刺激的だと思っているが，彼の最近の論文 (p. 131) で，drift を支持する研究者からの重要な引用が4点ほどなされていたので，それを再現したい（便宜のため，引用元の典拠は展開しておく）．

Languages . . . came into being, grew and developed according to definite laws, and now, in turn, age and die off . . . (Schleicher, August. Die Darwinsche Theorie und die Sprachwissenschaft: offenes Sendschreiben an Herrn Dr. Ernst Häckel. Weimar: H. Böhlau, 1873. Page 16.)

Language moves down time in a current of its own making. It has a drift. (Sapir, Edward. Language: An Introduction to the Study of Speech. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1921. Page 151.)

A living language is not just a collection of autonomous parts, but, as Sapir (1921) stressed, a harmonious and self-contained whole, massively resistant to change from without, which evolves according to an enigmatic, but unmistakably real, inner plan. (Donegan, Patricia Jane and David Stampe. "Rhythm and the Holistic Organization of Language Structure." Papers from the Parasession on the Interplay of Phonology, Morphology and Syntax. Eds. John F. Richardson, Mitchell Marks, and Amy Chukerman. Chicago: Chicago Linguistic Society, 1983. 337--53. Page 1.)

languages . . . are objects whose primary mode of existence is in time . . . which ought to be viewed as potentially having extended (trans-individual, transgenerational) 'lives of their own'. (Lass, Roger. "Language, Speakers, History and Drift." Explanation and Linguistic Change. Eds. W. F. Koopman, Frederike van der Leek, Olga Fischer, and Roger Eaton. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 1987. 151--76. Pages 156--57.).

　・ Ritt, Nikolaus. "How to Weaken one's Consonants, Strengthen one's Vowels and Remain English at the Same Time." Analysing Older English. Ed. David Denison, Ricardo Bermúdez-Otero, Chris McCully, and Emma Moore. Cambridge: CUP, 2012. 213--31.

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