On Explaining Language Change (Paperback)

Preface; 1. What does it mean to explain something?; 2. Why 'naturalness' does not explain anything; Appendix to chapter 2. Naturalness, 'uniformitarianism' and reconstruction; 3. The teleology problem: can language change be 'functional'?; Appendix to chapter 3. Four problems related to the question of function; 4. Causality and 'the nature of language'; 5. Conclusion and prospects: the limits of deductivism and some alternatives; References; Index.