Quote:
Originally Posted by Dr. Jamshid Ibrahim  ... to me lexicon is more dynamic and fickle than grammar. |
How, though, and what's its connection to the grammar proper? You say that they go in different directions, but how? I can't seem to get a clear answer from you on that.
You know, historically language change, for example, paradigmatic regularization, is based on efficiency. The less efficient the system--the less regular, the more likely that change will occur. A modern example of that, present perfect and simple past;
had gone > did go. In other words, systems change, not individual words, so when you say that the lexicon gets bigger the rules of the grammar become more efficient, I wonder how that would occur. What pushes the change?