ABSTRACT
In Part I, a framework for discussion has been established in which the mechanisms of linguistic change have been identified. In Part II the interaction of these mechanisms will be exemplified by looking at selected developments in all four levels of language conventionally distinguished: writing-system and sound system (often linked together as ‘transmission’), grammar and lexicon. In each case, outcomes traditionally assigned to one of these categories will be shown to be the result of dynamic interaction between intra-and extralinguistic processes. Thus, for instance, the Great Vowel Shift (the main example discussed in Chapter 5) will be shown to be the result of dynamic intralinguistic interaction between grammatical, phonological and lexical developments within an overall extralinguistic framework of sociohistorical change.
