What do you think are the causes of language change? Explain your answer with examples.
(1) Sound assimilation. For example, the Old English word Engla-land (the land of the Angles ") came to be pronounced "England" through the assimilation of "la-la" sounds. Another example of sound assimilation involves vowel nasalization. For example, when the vowel /a/ in /an/ assimilates to the nasality of the following nasal consonant /n/, it then becomes a nasalized /a/.
(2) Rule simplification and regularization. For example, Modern English has a small class of exceptional nouns in which the final voiceless fricative must be voiced in the plural form, such as the "leaf/leaves" pair.
(3) Internal borrowing. For example, by analogy to the plural formation of "foe-s" and "dog-s", speakers started saying "cows" as the plural of "cow" instead of the earlier plural "kine".
(4) Elaboration. For example, the syntactic system of Modern English is more complex than that of Old English, imposing a stricter word order on the language.
(5) Sociological triggers. A typical example in the history of English is the Norman Conquest, a military event that marked the dawning of the Middle English period.
(6) Cultural transmission. For example, while old people tend to call a refrigerator "icebox", the younger generation is more often heard speaking often heard speaking of "fridge”.
(7) Children's approximation toward the adult grammar. For example, adults may say "It's I" at certain times and say "It's me" at other times when the occasion is less formal. Children tend to use the less formal style and consequently, adopt the "me" variant consistently in this construction. In such cases, a change in the grammar occurs. (7P155)
