36.2130, Books: Acting on Actuation: De Smet, Inglese, Rosemeyer (eds.) (2025)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-36-2130. Thu Jul 10 2025. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 36.2130, Books: Acting on Actuation: De Smet, Inglese, Rosemeyer (eds.) (2025)

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Date: 10-Jul-2025
From: Sebastian Nordhoff [support at langsci-press.org]
Subject: Acting on Actuation: De Smet, Inglese, Rosemeyer (eds.) (2025)


Title: Acting on Actuation
Series Title: Conceptual Foundations of Language Science
Publication Year: 2025

Publisher: Language Science Press
           http://langsci-press.org
Book URL: https://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/507

Editor(s): Hendrik De Smet, Guglielmo Inglese, Malte Rosemeyer

eBook

Abstract:

This volume presents a timely discussion on one of the most
fundamental and yet elusive questions in historical linguistics: why
do certain linguistic changes take place in some languages at specific
times, but not in others, even under similar conditions? The actuation
problem, first articulated by Weinreich, Labov, and Herzog (1968),
remains a central puzzle in the study of language change, at the
crossroads between language structure, cognitive processes, and social
dynamics. While significant progress has been made in identifying
pathways and constraints on change and in understanding the social
embedding of linguistic variation, the ultimate challenge of
predicting language change remains unresolved, raising the question of
whether historical linguistics can ever be a predictive science. The
main reason for skepticism is that the inherent complexity of language
structure and use makes it extremely challenging to predict when and
how a given change may occur. Even so, a reassessment of where the
discipline stands with respect to its most central research question
is in order.
Building on recent advances in variationist sociolinguistics,
grammaticalization theory, and probabilistic modeling of language, the
contributions in this volume offer fresh theoretical and
methodological perspectives on the actuation problem, discussing the
interplay between principles of language change, the role of
bilingualism and language contact more generally, the distinction
between innovation and propagation, and the role of sociocultural
change. Research presented in this volume shows that there is indeed
cause for hope, bringing at least a probabilistic answer to the
actuation problem within closer reach.

Linguistic Field(s): History of Linguistics

Written In: English (eng)



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