History of change as decay

Mon May 13 01:13:46 UTC 2002

Dear Histlingers,

I apologise if the following is a very ignorant question. Is there a study
out there about the history of the belief that language change is decay? I
don't mean a few choice quotations from Samuel Johnson or August
Schleicher, but a serious study that tries to trace the development of this
view through history and perhaps in different traditions.

Many thanks, Guy Deutscher.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dr Guy Deutscher
St John's College
Cambridge CB2 1TP
England
E-mail:  gd116 at cam.ac.uk

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