Abstract Addressing a topic that has been marginal to discussions within historical linguistics, this study looks at how extent and speed of language change can be quantified meaningfully using corpus data. Looking specifically at formulaic language (understood here as word sequences that instantiate typical phrasings), a solidly data-based assessment of the speed of change within a 100-year time window is offered. This includes both a relative determination of speed (against the speed of change in lexis which is generally thought to be the fastest type of linguistic change, cf. Algeo 1980: 264; Trask and Millar 2010: 7) as well as a new independent measure of speed which is easy to interpret and therefore of high validity, while also robust and potentially applicable to any linguistic feature that can be counted in corpus data. Using data from a diachronic reference corpus of 20th century German, it is shown that change in formulaic language is very notably faster than lexical change, that the extent of change over a century is comparable in extent to contemporary inter-genre variation and that overall, the rate of change does fluctuate somewhat at the level of temporal granularity employed in this study. It is also argued that quantifying the speed of linguistic change can play an important role in building a deeper understanding of language change in general.

中文翻译：

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速度飞快：关于公式化语言的变化速度

摘要针对历史语言学中一直处于讨论边缘的话题，本研究探讨了如何使用语料库数据有意义地量化语言变化的程度和速度。专门研究公式化语言（此处理解为实例化典型措词的单词序列），可以提供基于数据的可靠评估，以评估100年时间范围内的变化速度。这包括速度的相对确定（相对于词汇变化的速度，通常认为这是语言变化的最快类型，参见Algeo 1980：264； Trask和Millar 2010：7）以及一项新的独立衡量标准。易于解释，因此具有很高的有效性，同时也很健壮，并可能适用于可以在语料库数据中计数的任何语言功能。使用来自20世纪德语的历时参考语料库的数据，可以看出，程式语言的变化比词汇变化快得多，一个世纪以来的变化程度与当代类型间的变化程度相当，总体而言，变化率确实在本研究中使用的时间粒度级别上有所波动。也有人认为，量化语言变化的速度可以在建立对语言变化的更深刻理解方面起重要作用。变化率确实在本研究中使用的时间粒度级别上有所波动。也有人认为，量化语言变化的速度可以在建立对语言变化的更深刻理解方面起重要作用。变化率确实在本研究中使用的时间粒度级别上有所波动。也有人认为，量化语言变化的速度可以在建立对语言变化的更深刻理解方面起重要作用。