UG determinism and phi-feature interpretability in the direction of language change

Abstract

This paper explores the issue of the directionality in language change, analyzing functional elements in Slavic as the empirical basis. Specifically, it examines the diachronic morphophonological weakening of auxiliary verbs and the strengthening of pronominal clitics in Slavic, showing that they instantiate modifications that occurred in opposite directions and which therefore may pose a challenge for the hypothesis of the directionality of language change. The changes are attributed in the paper to a uniform formal condition, the weakening of the T-feature, while their directionality is argued to be contingent on the (un)interpretability of phi-features carried by the elements undergoing the change.