Two Millennia of Lexical and Typological Change in Western Europe - a quantitative approach

Abstract: This thesis aims to examine the lexical and typological change found in the Western European language families of Germanic, Romance and Celtic over the last two millennia. The method used was to create one lexical and one typological database and the data was analysed according to etic grids. Tree models were generated from the results of the databases and the groups found in the tree models were mapped out on a map over Western Europe. The lexical results were similar to traditional classifications. The lexical results also showed that the changes appeared according to a pattern that could be described by the wave theory where lexical changes spread from the centre to the periphery. The results of the typological data were different from traditional classifications as it did not follow the boundaries of the three language families. In general the wave theory was applicable to a lesser extent to the typological data but it was relevant for the verbal morphology. Contrary to the lexical results the typological results indicated the existence of conservative centres with the peripheral languages being more typologically innovative. The conclusions drawn were that lexical change and typological change are two diametrically different and independent processes.