Hans-Jörg Schmid, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich

The Entrenchment-and-Conventionalization Model is a usage-based model of linguistic structure, variation and change. Its central goal is to explain how communal conventions and individual linguistic knowledge emerge from and are sustained by the use of language and at the same time feed back into usage. The course will provide an introduction to the model and focus on its predictions regarding language variation and change. Several case studies will illustrate the model’s predictions and demonstrate how it can be applied.