I-IV -- Preface -- Introduction -- Understanding linguistic innovations -- On the causes of syntactic change in English -- Pragmatics and syntactic change -- Language planning and language change -- The origin and function of switch reference in Green Hmong -- Invisible-hand processes and the universal laws of language change -- On the causes of accelerated linguistic change in the Pacific area -- Sound change is drawn from a pool of synchronic variation -- The role of children in linguistic change -- Contact and isolation in linguistic change -- Some contact structures in Scandinavian, Dutch, and Raeto-Romansh: inner-linguistic and/or contact causes of language change -- Index -- 282-284