Special Issue on Formal Diachronic Semantics

edited by Regine Eckardt, Dag Haug & Igor Yanovich

Eckardt, R., Haug, D., & Yanovich, I. (eds.) (2020). Special issue on formal diachronic semantics. Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue Canadienne De Linguistique, 65(3).

 

A first-ever special issue dedicated specifically to formal diachronic semantics. This young sub- field is in its formative stages, and is concerned with using the apparatus of “formal”, that is, logical semantics, for understanding meaning change, particularly of grammatical meaning.

From the introduction (available through the University of Vienna library):

It is a pleasure to present this collection of articles which make up the first-ever special issue dedicated specifically to formal diachronic semantics. This young subfield is in its formative stages, and is concerned with using the apparatus of “formal”, that is, logical semantics, for understanding meaning change, particularly of grammatical meaning.

Formal diachronic semantics is not strictly delineated from other types of historical semantics, just as modern formal semantics is informed by the insights in usage-conscious, cognitively-oriented, or sociolinguistically-aware research. Choosing the logical approach to linguistic meaning is not so much a matter of dogma or ideology as it is one of convenience: as it turns out, the logical perspective can often lead to interesting discoveries about how language functions which often complement those made by pursuing other lines of linguistic inquiry.

[...]

Our hope is that when you read the four articles printed in this collection, you will note on the one hand how the authors use novel methodological approaches in their striving for rigour, precision, and truth; while noting on the other hand that there remain an enormous number of open questions for formal diachronic semantics. Some of these are only beginning to emerge and for many there are as yet no established and proven research methods. There is a lot of work still to be done. We hope you will enjoy the serious attempts made in the articles in this issue to bring us all to a better understanding of how meanings change over time, one step at a time.

 

 

 

Igor Yanovich is a tenure track professor for English Corpus Linguistics and Quantitative Analysis at the Department of English and American Studies, University of Vienna.

Regine Eckardt is a professor of Linguistics at Konstanz University.

Dag Haug is an associate professor of Latin at the University of Oslo.