All living languages are characterized by sound changes that have occurred and will continue to occur in the course of their history. Some linguists choose to consider the sound change process as something that operates with the regularity of physical laws. ―Sound law‖ is a term devised by linguist August Leskien to describe the supposed absolute regularity of this kind of structural change in language. The term ―sound law‖ means that, in a given area and at a given period, if a sound changes, the change will be universal and will have no exceptions. This rule loses some of its inflexibility by amendments to the effect that, if apparent exceptions are found, they are due to some extraneous factor, such as learned influence, foreign or dialectal borrowing, or analogy.
【題組】What is the main topic of the passage?
(A) Sound changes that have occurred in language (B) A theory of sound change (C) Some exceptions to the rule of sound change (D) Some reasons for sound change
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