LINGUISTIC CHANGE - RESEARCHERS DILEMMAS

The paper discusses problems concerning the theory of linguistic change. It focuses on three interdependent issues: (1) language and its user; (2) language and its use; (3) linguistic change and human conduct. The central issue is what role is played in linguistic change by the fact that the homo sapiens uses language and the way in which he uses it. It is self-evident that, in the study of linguistic change, the point of departure is the system of language. The object of study is what changed, how, and why. Extra-linguistic factors (may) play a role in the third of those questions. People's lives and activities are kept in the desired channel by the biological law of homeostasis. Through a series of linked transmissions, that law prevails in the human activity of language use as well. And given that linguistic change comes into being in the course of humans' linguistic activity, that is, in language use, the author argues that homeostasis can be seen as a general mechanism indirectly governing language change.