Session 1 (Week 2): 17th October 

Breban, Tine, Kersti Börjars & Lorenzo Moretti. 2025. Multiple source explanation in language change: The emergence of auxiliary do. Diachronica. https://doi.org/10.1075/dia.24060.bre

Session 2 (Week 3): 24th October

Moelders, Anne-Marie and Isabelle Buchstaller. 2025. Learning to be (un)hip in panel data. Exploring quotative be like across the adult life‑span. Diachronica. https://doi.org/10.1075/dia.24008.moe

Session 3 (Week 4): 31st October

Nevalainen, Terttu, Tanja Säily, Turo Vartiainen, Aatu Liimatta and Jefrey Lijffijt. 2020. History of English as punctuated equilibria? A meta-analysis of the rate of linguistic change in Middle English. Journal of Historical Sociolinguistics. 6(20). https://doi.org/10.1515/jhsl-2019-0008 

Session 4 (Week 5): 7th November

Blevins, Juliette. 2018. Evolutionary phonology and the life cycle of voiceless sonorants.  In Cristofaro, Sonia and Fernando Zúñiga (eds.). Typological hierarchies in synchrony and diachrony. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. 29-60

Session 5 (Week 6): 14th November

Hudson, Toby,  Jonathan Wei and John Coleman. 2024. Using acoustic-phonetic simulations to model historical sound change. Diachronica. 41(3). 355 - 378. https://doi.org/10.1075/dia.23019.hud 

Session 6 (Week 7): 21st November

Piwowarczyk, Dariusz. 2022. Computational approaches to linguistic chronology and subgrouping. In Olander, Thomas (Ed.). The Indo-European language family: A phylogenetic perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.  33–51. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108758666.003

AND

Ringe, Don. 2022. What we can (and can’t) learn from computational cladistics. In Olander, Thomas (Ed.). The Indo-European language family: A phylogenetic perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 52-62. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108758666.004 

Session 7 (Week 8): 28th November 

Jing, Yingqi, Paul Widmer & Balthasar Bickel. 2023. Word order evolves at similar rates in main and subordinate clauses: Corpus-based evidence from Indo-European. Diachronica. 40(4). 532-556. https://doi.org/10.1075/dia.20035.jin 

Session 1 (Friday 9th May) 

White, L. (2009). Some questions about feature re-assembly. Second Language Research, 25(2), 343-348. https://doi.org/10.1177/0267658308100294.

 We will also discuss the last part of Lardiere (2009) which we didn’t finish last term: Lardiere, Donna. (2009). Some thoughts on the contrastive analysis of features in second language acquisition. Second Language Research, Vol. 25, No. 2, Special Issue: 25th anniversary issue (April 2009), pp. 173-227.

Session 2 (Friday 16th May)

Kallel, Amel. 2007. The loss of negative concord in Standard English: Internal factors. Language Variation and Change 19(1). 27–49. doi:10.1017/S0954394507070019

Session 3 (Friday 23rd May)

Van de Velde, F., & De Smet, I. (2021). Markov Models for multi-state language change. Journal of Quantitative Linguistics, 29(3), 314–338. https://doi.org/10.1080/09296174.2021.1877004 

Session 1 – 24 January

Sitaridou, I. (2022). "Chapter 2 On the Redundancy of a Theory of Language Contact: Cue-Based Reconstruction in a Socio-linguistically Informed Manner". In Studying Language Change in the 21st Century. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004510579_003

Session 2 – 31 January

Neocleous, Nicolaos, and Ioanna Sitaridou. (2022). “Never Just Contact the Rise of Final Auxiliaries in Asia Minor Greek.” Diachronica 39(3): 369–408. https://doi.org/10.1075/dia.17048.neo

Session 3 – 7 February

Labov, William. (2008). "Transmission and Diffusion." Language, vol. 83(2): 344-387. Project MUSE, https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/lan.2007.0082.

Session 4 – 14 February

Gillian Sankoff. (2004). Adolescents, young adults and the critical period: two case studies from "Seven Up". In C. Fought (ed.), Sociolinguistic Variation: Critical Reflections. Oxford University Press, 121-139.

Session 5 – 21 February

Walkden, George, & Anne Breitbarth. (2019). Interpreting (un)interpretability. Theoretical Linguistics. 45(3-4): 309-317. https://doi.org/10.1515/tl-2019-0022 

Session 6 – 28 February

Lardiere, Donna. (2009). Some thoughts on the contrastive analysis of features in second language acquisition. Second Language Research, Vol. 25, No. 2, Special Issue: 25th anniversary issue (April 2009), pp. 173-227.

And one of the replies to her paper: White, L. (2009). Some questions about feature re-assembly. Second Language Research, 25(2), 343-348. https://doi.org/10.1177/0267658308100294.

Session 7 – 7 March

Mayeux, Oliver. (2025). Decreolization: A “special case” of language change? In Dani Adone & Astrid Gabel (eds.), On the Evolution, Acquisition and Development of Syntax: Insights from Creole Languages and Beyond, 299–316. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/evolution-acquisition-and-development-of-syntax/CA60428BDD107DEA16C68D90A70E5D07

Session 8 – 14 March

Davidson, Hannah & Paoli, Sandra 2024. The Role of Language Contact in the Development of Three Mauritian Pragmatic Markers. Journal of Language Contact 17. 553–588

Session 1: 11th October 

Chapter 4 (Head labeling preference and acquisitional reanalysis). In: Dadan, Marcin R. 2019. Head labeling preference and language change. Doctoral Dissertation, University of Connecticut. https://opencommons.uconn.edu/dissertations/2384

Session 2: 18th October

Chapter 2 (Labeling in language change). In: Van Gelderen, Elly. 2021. Third factors in language variation and change. Cambridge University Press.

https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108923408

Session 3: 25th October

Willis, David. 2017. Endogenous and exogenous theories of syntactic change. In: Ledgeway, Adam & Ian Roberts (eds.) The Cambridge handbook of historical syntax. (Cambridge Handbooks in Language and Linguistics.) Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781107279070.024

Session 4: 1st November

Börjars, Kersti & Nigel Vincent. Lexical-Functional grammar. In: Ledgeway, Adam & Ian Roberts (eds.) The Cambridge handbook of historical syntax. (Cambridge Handbooks in Language and Linguistics.) Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781107279070.030

Session 5: 8th November

Denison, David. 2003. Log(ist)ic and simplistic S-curves. In Hickey, Raymond (ed.). Motives for language change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511486937.005

Session 6: 15th November

Kauhanen, Henri. 2023. Grammar competition, speaker models and rates of change: A critical reappraisal of the Constant Rate Hypothesis. Proceedings of the 22nd Diachronic Generative Syntax (DiGS) Conference. https://doi.org/10.18148/hs/2023.v7i6-19.148

Session 7: 22nd November

Tsimpli, Ianthi Maria, & Maria Dimitrakopoulou. 2007. The interpretability hypothesis: evidence from wh-interrogatives in second language acquisition. Second Language Research 23(2), 215–242. https://doi.org/10.1177/0267658307076546

Session 8: 29th November

Walkden, George, & Anne Breitbarth. 2019. Interpreting (un)interpretability. Theoretical Linguistics. 45(3-4), 309-317. https://doi.org/10.1515/tl-2019-0022 

Session 1: Friday 26th April

Longobardi, Giuseppe, Paola Crisma & Cristina Guardiano. 2020. Syntactic diversity and language learnability. Studi e Saggi Linguistici 58(2). 99–130. https://doi.org/10.4454/ssl.v58i2.265 

Session 2: Friday 3rd May

Chapter 2, Chapter 3 and Chapter 8 in Kodner, Jordan. 2020. Language acquisition in the past. PhD dissertation.

Session 3: Friday 10th May

Wallenberg, Joel C., Rachael Bailes, Christine Cuskley & Anton Karl Ingason. 2021. Smooth signals and syntactic change. Languages 6(2): 60. https://doi.org/10.3390/languages6020060 

Session 4: Friday 17th May

Cournane, Ailís & Espen Klævik-Pettersen. 2023. The role of the conservative learner in the rise and fall of verb-second. Proceedings of the 22nd Diachronic Generative Syntax (DiGS) Conference. https://doi.org/10.18148/hs/2023.v7i6-19.160 

Session 5: Friday 14th June 

Kauhanen, Henri. 2023. Grammar competition, speaker models and rates of change: A critical reappraisal of the Constant Rate Hypothesis. Proceedings of the 22nd Diachronic Generative Syntax (DiGS) Conference. https://doi.org/10.18148/hs/2023.v7i6-19.148

Session 6: Friday 21st June

Cappelle, Bert. 2024. Can Construction Grammar be proven wrong? Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009343213 

Session 1 (19 January):

Sections 2.3-2.5 and Section 8 (Concluding remarks) in Beekhuizen, Barend. 2015. Constructions emerging: A usage-based model of the acquisition of grammar. Utrecht, LOT. https://hdl.handle.net/1887/35460

Session 2 (26 January):

Chapter 3 (‘Language acquisition meets language evolution’) from Christiansen, M. H., & Chater, N. (2016). Creating Language: Integrating Evolution, Acquisition, and Processing. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press. https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/10406.001.0001 

Session 3 (2 February):

Chapters 15 and 18 (‘Transparency’ and ‘Acquisition and Learnability’) from Ledgeway, Adam, & Ian Roberts (Eds.). 2017. The Cambridge handbook of historical syntax (Cambridge Handbooks in Language and Linguistics). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781107279070 

Session 4 (9 February):

Chapters 7 and 27 (‘Parameter Setting’ and ‘Principles and Parameters’) from Ledgeway, Adam, & Ian Roberts (Eds.). 2017. The Cambridge handbook of historical syntax (Cambridge Handbooks in Language and Linguistics). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781107279070

Session 5 (16 February):

Kodner, J. (2020). Language acquisition in the past. PhD dissertation. https://www.proquest.com/docview/2404081100?pq-origsite=gscholar&fromopenview=true&sourcetype=Dissertations%20&%20Theses 

Session 6 (23 February):

Wallenberg, Joel C., Rachael Bailes, Christine Cuskley & Anton Karl Ingason. 2021. Smooth Signals and Syntactic Change. Languages 6: 60. https://doi.org/10.3390/languages6020060 

Session 7 (1 March):

Kauhanen, Henri. 2023. Grammar competition, speaker models and rates of change: A critical reappraisal of the Constant Rate Hypothesis. Proceedings of the 22nd Diachronic Generative Syntax (DiGS) Conference https://doi.org/10.18148/hs/2023.v7i6-19.148 

Session 8 (8 March):

Cournane, Ailís Cournane and Espen Klævik-Pettersen. 2023. The role of the conservative learner in the rise and fall of verb-second. Proceedings of the 22nd Diachronic Generative Syntax (DiGS) Conference https://doi.org/10.18148/hs/2023.v7i6-19.160 

Session 1: Monday 9th October

Clark, Robin & Ian Roberts. 1993. A computational model of language learnability and language change. Linguistic Inquiry. 24(2). 299–345. 

Session 2: Monday 16th October

Part VI (Cue-based acquisition and change in grammars) in Lightfoot, David. 1999. The development of language: Acquisition, change, and evolution. Oxford: Blackwell.

Session 3: Monday 23rd October

Yang, Charles. 2000. Internal and external forces in language change. Language Variation and Change 12. 231–250. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954394500123014 

Session 4: Monday 30th October

Lightfoot, David and Marit Westergaard. 2007. Language acquisition and language change: Inter-relationships. Language and Linguistics Compass 1(5). 396-415.  https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-818X.2007.00023.x 

Session 5: Monday 6th November

Diessel, Holger. 2007. Frequency effects in language acquisition, language use, and diachronic change. New Ideas in Psychology. 25(2). 108-127 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.newideapsych.2007.02.002 

Session 6: Monday 13th November

Beckner, Clay et al. 2009. Language is a complex adaptive system: Position paper. Language Learning. 59. 1-26. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9922.2009.00533.x 

Session 7: Monday 20th November

Heycock, Caroline, & Joel Wallenberg. 2013. How variational acquisition drives syntactic change. The Journal of Comparative Germanic Linguistics. 16(2). 127–157. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10828-013-9056-0 

Session 8: Monday 27th November

Sections 2.3-2.5 and Section 8 (Concluding remarks) in Beekhuizen, Barend. 2015. Constructions emerging: A usage-based model of the acquisition of grammar. Utrecht, LOT.

Session 1: Friday 5th May

Walkden, George. (2021). Against mechanisms: towards a minimal theory of change. Journal of Historical Syntax. 5(33), 1-27.

Session 2: Friday 12 May

Kiparsky, Paul. 1968. Linguistic Universals and Linguistic Change. In Emmon Bach & R. Harms (eds.), Universals in Linguistic Theory, 170–202. Holt, Rinehart, and Winston.

Session 7: Friday 16 June

Lightfoot, David. 1979. Chapter 3 "A theory of change" in Principles of Diachronic Syntax. Cambridge University Press.

Session 8: Friday 23 June (2 readings)

Warner, Anthony. 1981. Review of Lightfoot (1979). Journal of Linguistics 19 (1983), 187-209. 

AND

Canale, M. (1979). Review of Lightfoot (1979). Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue Canadienne De Linguistique, 24(2), 156-157. https://doi:10.1017/S0008413100023458 

Session 1: Friday 17th February 

Hermann, Paul. 2015. On the General Nature of Language Development. In trans. Auer, Hermann Paul’s “Principles of Language History” Revisited, 47–58. De Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110348842-004

Session 2: Friday 3rd March

Part II (Diachronic Linguistics) in Saussure’s Course in General Linguistics (translated here: Ferdinand de Saussure, Perry Meisel, & Haun Saussy. 2011. Course in General Linguistics. New York: Columbia University Press.)

Session 3: Friday 10th March

Halle, Morris. 1962. Phonology in Generative Grammar. WORD 18(1–3). 54–72. https://doi.org/10.1080/00437956.1962.11659765

Session 4: Friday 17th March

Traugott, Elizabeth. Diachronic syntax and generative grammar. Language 41: 402-414