While research on language change has formulated robust empirical generalisations about processes and motivations underlying the emergence and spread of linguistic elements, their decline and loss is less well understood. So far a systematic investigation into the processes and motivations of decline and loss in language change is lacking. This book is a first step towards remedying this state of affairs. It brings together a varied set of empirical investigations into decline and loss, spanning morphology, syntax and the lexicon, in different languages. Their authors apply diverse methodologies and represent different theoretical approaches. On the basis of this broad span of studies, authors and editors propose generalisations related to decline and loss and assess similarities and differences with processes and motivations of emergence and spread. The book aims to inspire and provide hypotheses for further studies of decline and loss. It will appeal to historical linguists and others interested in language change.

So far a systematic investigation into the processes and motivations of decline and loss in language change is lacking. This book is a first step towards remedying this state of affairs.

In 1973 Marcia Lowry, a young civil liberties attorney, filed a controversial class-action suit that would come to be known as Wilder, which challenged New York City’s operation of its foster-care system. Lowry’s contention was that the system failed the children it was meant to help because it placed them according to creed and convenience, not according to need. The plaintiff was thirteen-year-old Shirley Wilder, an abused runaway whose childhood had been shaped by the system’s inequities. Within a year Shirley would give birth to a son and relinquish him to the same failing system. Seventeen years later, with Wilder still controversial and still in court, Nina Bernstein tried to find out what had happened to Shirley and her baby. She was told by child-welfare officials that Shirley had disappeared and that her son was one of thousands of anonymous children whose circumstances are concealed by the veil of confidentiality that hides foster care from public scrutiny. But Bernstein persevered. The Lost Children of Wilder gives us, in galvanizing and compulsively readable detail, the full history of a case that reveals the racial, religious, and political fault lines in our child-welfare system, and lays bare the fundamental contradiction at the heart of our well-intended efforts to sever the destiny of needy children from the fate of their parents. Bernstein takes us behind the scenes of far-reaching legal and legislative battles, at the same time as she traces, in heartbreaking counterpoint, the consequences as they are played out in the life of Shirley’s son, Lamont. His terrifying journey through the system has produced a man with deep emotional wounds, a stifled yearning for family, and a son growing up in the system’s shadow. In recounting the failure of the promise of benevolence, The Lost Children of Wilder makes clear how welfare reform can also damage its intended beneficiaries. A landmark achievement of investigative reporting and a tour de force of social observation, this book will haunt every reader who cares about the needs of children.

Understanding the 'lost decade' of the 1990s is central to explaining Japan today. Following a period of record high growth, the chronic downturn after 1990 raised fundamental questions about the course of the world's third largest economy. This crisis also presented Japan with the opportunity for transformative change. Changes have followed, some of them less than might be expected, and some of them far more sweeping than is generally realized. This volume presents a wide range of international perspectives on post-bubble Japan, exploring the effects of the long downturn on the views of the Japanese business community, management practices, and national policies. To what degree has Japan's traumatic experience prompted basic reforms in terms of legal changes, corporate governance, business strategy, and the longterm national vision for the economy? This book was originally published as a special issue of Asia Pacific Business Review.

Lost Knowledge: The Concept of Vanished Technologies and Other Human Histories examines the idea of lost knowledge, reaching back to a period between myth and history. It investigates a peculiar idea found in a number of early texts: that there were civilizations with knowledge of sophisticated technologies, and that this knowledge was obscured or destroyed over time along with the civilization that had created it. This book presents critical studies of a series of early Chinese, South Asian, and other texts that look at the idea of specific “lost” technologies, such as mechanical flight and the transmission of images. There is also an examination of why concepts of a vanished “golden age” were prevalent in so many cultures. Offering an engaging and investigative look at the propagation of history and myth in technology and culture, this book is sure to interest historians and readers from many backgrounds.

Industry insider, veteran executive, and working mom Hilarie Gamm pulls the curtain back on the destruction of the American technology industry in her groundbreaking work, Billions Lost: The American Tech Crisis and the Road Map to Change. Gamm connects the dots between seemingly disparate events and facts, and outlines with stunning clarity the perfect storm that created a massive exodus of tech industry jobs from the U.S. Extensively researched and firmly apolitical, Billions Lost explains how the offshoring of millions of U.S. technology jobs opened a gateway that places our economy, our national security, and our educational systems at risk. Gamm succinctly explains the Y2K scare, visa reform, and other factors that snowballed into today's crisis, and identifies the ramifications of outsourcing on our country and its profound impact on America's middle class. To spark a national conversation, Gamm closes with her Road Map to Change: 20 actions that can reverse the trend, improve education, save the middle class, and return growth, security, and prosperity to America.

Too little, too late. The physical evidence of climate change is becoming more dramatic every year: record-breaking heatwaves, retreating forests, polar ice melting, floods, droughts and storms. Climate scientists are concerned that much of this is now irreversible – with disastrous consequences for all life on Earth. In Too Late., Geoffrey Maslen paints a sobering picture of the state of our planet and discusses how successive governments have failed to initiate change. Drawing on the work of leading climate scientists, this book is an urgent reminder that we have reached the point of no return. It is essential reading for anyone who cares about our planet’s future and what we leave for the generations to come. About the author
Geoffrey Maslen is a former industrial chemist, college lecturer in science and a journalist. A long-time education editor at The Age newspaper, he has written for a range of international publications and is the author of nine books, including An Uncertain Future: Australian Birdlife in Danger, published by Hardie Grant in 2017.