Cyclic change in grammar and discourse: an introduction

This editors’ introduction to the volume sets the intellectual frame within which the original research contributions that follow should be read. We start by outlining the history of the notion of linguistic cycles from its earliest manifestations in the literature through to the most recent developments within both formalist and functional-cognitivist linguistics. In this same section, we propose working definitions of renewal cycles vs life cycles, and discuss terminological issues that are central to the field. Further, we discuss cyclic changes at different levels of linguistic description and the possible links between them. In the second half of the chapter, we explain the aims and objectives of the present volume, and how the individual chapters each contribute to addressing them. Finally, we briefly outline the structure of the volume and summarize the argument of each chapter.