Lexical Change and Stability

This chapter presents quantitative and qualitative approaches to the study and analysis of lexical change and lexical stability. It employs examples drawn principally from the lexical histories of English and Spanish. Lexical change is manifested as lexical innovation or the creation of neologisms through borrowings and internal derivational processes and as lexical loss. Some general considerations on the nature of lexical change are followed by a discussion, illustrated with examples drawn from the history of English, of how lexical innovations in the form of borrowings and internal creations can be subjected to different types of quantitative analysis. The analysis then turns to an examination of possible internal and external causes of lexical loss, illustrated with examples from the history of Spanish. A study of lexical stability or non‐change, as illustrated by selected lexical fields in the Romance languages, closes the chapter.