Preface List of Tables List of Figures Abbreviations 1 Introduction 1 What is the linguistic cycle? 2 What kinds of cycles exist? 3 How and why to study cyclical change 3.1 The practical side 3.2 The theoretical side 4 Major questions in the study of cycles 5 Terminology 6 Conclusion and outline Suggestions for further reading Review questions and exercises 2 History 1 The late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries 2 The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries 3 The mid and late twentieth century 4 Recent generative work 5 Recent functionalist work 6 Conclusion Suggestions for further reading Review questions 3 Micro cycles: Determiner and Verbal Cycles 1 Definition of a micro cycle 2 Determiner Cycles 3 Copula Cycles 4 Tense and Aspect Cycles 4.1 The Imperfective Cycle 4.2 The Perfective Cycle 4.3 Imperfective and perfective renewal in Basque 5 Mood Cycles 6 Voice Cycles 7 Conclusion Suggestions for further reading Review questions and exercises 4 Micro cycles: Polarity and Discourse Cycles 1 Negative Cycles 1.1 Jespersen's Negative Cycle 1.2 Givón's Negative Cycle 1.

3 Croft's Negative Cycle 2 Interrogative Cycles 3 Complementizer Cycles 4 Pragmatic Cycles 4.1 A definition 4.2 Temperal adverbs as sources 4.3 Emphatic Pronoun Cycles 5 Interactions between micro cycles 6 Conclusions Suggestions for further reading Review questions and exercises 5 Macro cycles 1 Definition of a macro cycle 2 Analytic to synthetic to analytic 3 Pronoun Cycles 3.1 Subject Cycle 3.2 Object Cycle 3.3 Morpheme Order 4 Case Cycles 5 Interactions involving macro cycles 6 Conclusions Suggestions for further reading Review questions and exercises Appendix 6 Explanations and mechanisms 1 Clarity vs comfort 2 External factors 3 Construction Grammar 4 Early Minimalism: structural and featural economy 5 Later Minimalism: labeling and determinacy 6 Attractor states 7 Conclusions Suggestions for further reading Review questions and exercises 7 Conclusions and future directions 1 Insights from cycles 2 Criticisms of the cycle 3 Future directions Suggested answers to the review questions and exercises References Indices.