Raymond
Hickey
Contributions to journals
The relative weight which is accorded to internal and external factors in language change is an ongoing debate. In this paper the claims made by Lass in several papers, in which he downplays the role of contact as a source of new features, are subjected to scrutiny. The double position that core structural features of a language always have priority and that inherited features remain unaltered is considered with evidence produced to show that this is not necessarily always the case. The parallels in the internal mechanisms suggested for the attested word order changes in both Old English and Old Irish are examined critically.
The relative weight which is accorded to internal and external factors in language change is an ongoing debate. In this paper the claims made by Lass in several papers, in which he downplays the role of contact as a source of new features, are subjected to scrutiny. The double position that core structural features of a language always have priority and that inherited features remain unaltered is considered with evidence produced to show that this is not necessarily always the case. The parallels in the internal mechanisms suggested for the attested word order changes in both Old English and Old Irish are examined critically.