This book, based on an undergraduate course at Cambridge University, provides a
comprehensive introduction to language change. Chapter 1 sets forth the history of the study of
language change and the basic questions in the field. The remainder of the book is divided into
two parts. Chapters 2–7 examine internally motivated change at the phonological,
syntactic, semantic, and lexical levels. Within each chapter, the author outlines important
theoretical positions, from the Neogrammarians to the generative work of Lightfoot and more
recent studies of grammaticalization. Although, as McMahon notes, the separation of types of
language change by levels involves considerable idealization, the result is greater clarity of
organization. The second part (Chapters 8–12), which is concerned with language contact,
language variation, pidgins and creoles, language attrition and death, and linguistic evolution, is
organized topically. It is this section that is perhaps of most interest to students of SLA. As in the
first section, McMahon reviews the perspectives on language change that emerge from a wide
variety of classic studies, including Bickerton's work on Guyanese Creole and
Dorian's studies of East Sutherland Gaelic. Although specialists might be disappointed to
see their favorite studies missing, the examples provide an effective introduction for the intended
audience of undergraduates.
MINORITY GROUPS AND LANGUAGE DIVERSITY IN GERMANY AND BRAZIL: AN INTERVIEW WITH GÖZ KAUFMANN (UNIVERSITY OF FREIBURG, GERMANY)
