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Revisiting the five foundational problems of Weinreich, Labov & Herzog (1968)

Anne Breitbarth (UGent)
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Abstract
In their seminal paper “Empirical Foundations for a Theory of Language Change”, Weinreich et al. (1968) set out five problems that according to them, any theory of language change needs to address. The constraints problem deals with the limits to possible changes, while the transitions problem asks what concrete stages are needed to account for a change. The embedding problem is concerned with the language internal and external factors that may influence the course of a change. The evaluation problem zooms in on a particular language external factor: the social evaluation of a change, and the effect of such an evaluation on the change. Finally, the actuation problem consists in finding an answer to the question why a given change occurs at a particular place and time, and why change may fail to happen elsewhere under seemingly similar conditions. In the over fifty years since its publication, Weinreich et al.’s programme has inspired much work, not always explicitly referring to it, which has addressed various subsets of these problems. The question guiding the current chapter is how the necessarily limited historical data can be exploited to find solutions to the constraints, transition, embedding, evaluation, and actuation problems, and how this is often a matter of methodological creativity and theoretical choices. With this aim, the current chapter discusses several case studies from the literature to showcase how research has built and continues to build on the foundations laid by Weinreich et al.
Keywords
constraints problem, transitions problem, embedding problem, evaluation problem, actuation problem, variation, uniformitarianism

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MLA
Breitbarth, Anne. “Revisiting the Five Foundational Problems of Weinreich, Labov & Herzog (1968).” Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Diachronic Linguistics, edited by Adam Ledgeway et al., Wiley-Blackwell, 2024, pp. 1–42.
APA
Breitbarth, A. (2024). Revisiting the five foundational problems of Weinreich, Labov & Herzog (1968). In A. Ledgeway, E. Aldridge, A. Breitbarth, K. É. Kiss, J. Salmons, & A. Simonenko (Eds.), Wiley-Blackwell companion to diachronic linguistics (pp. 1–42). Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
Chicago author-date
Breitbarth, Anne. 2024. “Revisiting the Five Foundational Problems of Weinreich, Labov & Herzog (1968).” In Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Diachronic Linguistics, edited by Adam Ledgeway, Edith Aldridge, Anne Breitbarth, Katalin É Kiss, Joseph Salmons, and Alexandra Simonenko, 1–42. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
Chicago author-date (all authors)
Breitbarth, Anne. 2024. “Revisiting the Five Foundational Problems of Weinreich, Labov & Herzog (1968).” In Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Diachronic Linguistics, ed by. Adam Ledgeway, Edith Aldridge, Anne Breitbarth, Katalin É Kiss, Joseph Salmons, and Alexandra Simonenko, 1–42. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.
Vancouver
1.
Breitbarth A. Revisiting the five foundational problems of Weinreich, Labov & Herzog (1968). In: Ledgeway A, Aldridge E, Breitbarth A, Kiss KÉ, Salmons J, Simonenko A, editors. Wiley-Blackwell companion to diachronic linguistics. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell; 2024. p. 1–42.
IEEE
[1]
A. Breitbarth, “Revisiting the five foundational problems of Weinreich, Labov & Herzog (1968),” in Wiley-Blackwell companion to diachronic linguistics, A. Ledgeway, E. Aldridge, A. Breitbarth, K. É. Kiss, J. Salmons, and A. Simonenko, Eds. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2024, pp. 1–42.
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  abstract     = {{In their seminal paper “Empirical Foundations for a Theory of Language Change”, Weinreich et al. (1968) set out five problems that according to them, any theory of language change needs to address. The constraints problem deals with the limits to possible changes, while the transitions problem asks what concrete stages are needed to account for a change. The embedding problem is concerned with the language internal and external factors that may influence the course of a change. The evaluation problem zooms in on a particular language external factor: the social evaluation of a change, and the effect of such an evaluation on the change. Finally, the actuation problem consists in finding an answer to the question why a given change occurs at a particular place and time, and why change may fail to happen elsewhere under seemingly similar conditions. In the over fifty years since its publication, Weinreich et al.’s programme has inspired much work, not always explicitly referring to it, which has addressed various subsets of these problems. The question guiding the current chapter is how the necessarily limited historical data can be exploited to find solutions to the constraints, transition, embedding, evaluation, and actuation problems, and how this is often a matter of methodological creativity and theoretical choices. With this aim, the current chapter discusses several case studies from the literature to showcase how research has built and continues to build on the foundations laid by Weinreich et al.}},
  author       = {{Breitbarth, Anne}},
  booktitle    = {{Wiley-Blackwell companion to diachronic linguistics}},
  editor       = {{Ledgeway, Adam and Aldridge, Edith and Breitbarth, Anne and Kiss, Katalin É and Salmons, Joseph and Simonenko, Alexandra}},
  isbn         = {{9781119898016}},
  keywords     = {{constraints problem,transitions problem,embedding problem,evaluation problem,actuation problem,variation,uniformitarianism}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  pages        = {{1--42}},
  publisher    = {{Wiley-Blackwell}},
  title        = {{Revisiting the five foundational problems of Weinreich, Labov & Herzog (1968)}},
  year         = {{2024}},
}