Indogermanisches etymologisches Worterbuch

Automatic (Transference, Translation, Remittance, Shunting)

“…The process of change and assimilation, which has led from the English of Chaucer to that of Churchill, is not yet well understood, though it is now under active study. Whatmough's theory of selective variation, 6 for example, attempts to explain the process by which yesterday's stable, intelligible pattern of a language interacts with perturbing influences to produce a new stable pattern permitting, once again, ready communication. Zipf, 7 two decades ago, observed startling regularities in data describing the relative frequency of occurrence of words and, under attack, stated "I believe that the equilibrating forces suggested by our formulae are wider and deeper than Dr. Thorndike does, and that they are acting to produce equilibrium for equilibrium's sake.…”