This chapter discusses phonological motivations for morpho-syntactic changes in history. In general, Old Chinese was monosyllabic, which means that the overwhelming majority of words were represented by a single syllable, regardless of whether they were content or function words. In Middle Chinese, the phonological system was dramatically simplified; the number of consonants and vowels was reduced, and the syllabic structures were simplified. To restore the phonological distinctions of lexical items, the language increased the number of syllables for words, typically by adding one syllable to originally monosyllabic words. This disyllabification tendency has lasted nearly two millennia since then. This new sort of prosodic unit stimulated the fusion of two monosyllabic items, a key factor for the emergence of the resultative construction and other grammatical morphemes.

Building on previous chapters’ conclusions, this chapter posits various organizational levels of intentionality and speculates as to how they interconnect through powers-based processes and biological evolutionary developments. These levels of intentionality form an intentionality continuum. The Intentionality Continuum Thesis holds that intentionality is not a local phenomenon, present only in creatures with minds, but a global phenomenon present in fundamental physical phenomena, biological cells, plants, animals and humans, and human societies. So the continuum of intentionality in nature runs from the physical intentionality of fundamental powers to the complex, higher-level psychological powers of organisms as well as social groups. This might require emergent powers, a possibility that is defended and the account of which is inspired by the fusion theory of emergent properties advanced by Paul Humphreys. Given the panintentionality implied by the Intentionality Continuum Thesis, along with some other defensible assumptions, a reasonable though certainly tentative case can be made for pantheism. The chapter, and the book, conclude by identifying open questions.

Shifting to an examination of identity formation from below, Chapter 4 observes popular culture through music and opens a discussion on the nature of Iranian identity. Music is not only a cultural expression; in Iran it has also been used as a political tool and as part of resistance movements. Iranians voiced their allegiance with the revolution and their identity as Shiite Muslims through song-like protest chants and musical tracks. Protest chants and group singing heighten the meaning of words and help facilitate a sense of unity. These techniques were employed as an emotive force during the revolution and by later generations to proclaim their identity and as a form of resistance after the controversial election of 2009. The Green Movement is a pertinent example of how popular music is utilized by Iranians as a mode of expression. Consequently, popular music can be used as a tool for investigation in order to facilitate a better understanding of contemporary Iranian identity and society.

Chapter 23 reviews the role of grammaticalization at different levels of grammar: phonological, morpho-syntactic, paradigmatic, and semantic-pragmatic. It first discusses the dischronic principles and mechanisms that have been proposed in previous grammaticalization studies. The chapter then examines the prominent patterns by source category, dividing these into nouns and verbs. In the nominal category, four source construction types are illustrated with the reanalyses that led to their emergence as grammatical forms such as postpositions, conjunctions, and auxiliaries. In the verbal category, four source construction types are illustrated, with special focus on the grammaticalization of de-verbal postpositions and auxiliary verbs. The chapter further addresses select aspects of Korean grammaticalization from a typological perspective. It discusses the productive use of affixes, converbs, and predicatives known as “mermaid constructions”, which are among the characteristics shared by many languages in the eastern Eurasian region. It also discusses the presence of large inventories of de-verbal postpositions and numeral classifiers.

In Chapter 6, there is a review of the historical record, with the help of the Oxford English Dictionary Online, other older corpora and studies by historical linguists, in an attempt to identify earlier forms of general extenders and to trace the development of those in current use. One clear pathway of change is identified in terms of phrases with specific reference becoming more general in their range of reference and even losing referential function over time. Detailed paths of development are provided for all the most common forms. The different processes involved in grammaticalization are also described and illustrated, with attention given to lexical replacement, semantic bleaching, morphosyntactic and phonological change and pragmatic shift.

During the latter half of the Reconstruction era, Republicans in the South faced major electoral defeats due to the enfranchisement of white voters, dismal economic conditions, and Democratic Party-sponsored terror against black voters. As a result, by 1877 the Democrats won unified control of state governments across the region – and largely held it for the succeeding two decades. Yet this decline in Republican electoral strength did not reduce the South’s influence at the GOP national convention. Indeed, from 1877 to 1896, the eleven states of the former Confederacy made up around 25 percent of Republican convention delegates. There were three reasons for this. First, many Republican national leaders remained hopeful that the end of Reconstruction was not the final word on the GOP’s role in the South and believed that a winning electoral strategy could be devised for the party to remain a viable political force in the South. Second, Southern delegates passionately – and, to a large extent, correctly – argued that their states’ inability to produce electoral votes and congressional seats for the GOP was due to Democratic sabotage of the electoral process. With Southern blacks increasingly excluded from the democratic process at home, the Republican National Convention remained one of the few remaining political arenas in which they could participate. For the party of Lincoln to try and strip these delegates of their role within the party was, for some, problematic. Finally, Southern delegates were very helpful to presidential hopefuls from other parts of the country because their support could be easily acquired through patronage and other forms of bribery. Thus, whoever could afford to court the South could go into the convention with a sizable bloc of votes.

Law and equity fused administratively in the nineteenth century in most jurisdictions. But fusion is a prominent theme in equity today: it has become the means by which lawyers access the fundamental questions presented by equity in common law systems. What is the place of equity? Is it certain or open-ended? And so on. This chapter considers how a modern lawyer can best approach those questions. A wider perspecitve on fusion is needed than has recently prevailed, and a theory of equity is needed which the evidence lends itself to. The features of such a theory are identified, and the practical significance of fusion is discussed with specific reference to relief from forfeiture and modern writing on the law of restitution.

David Dudley Field was the architect of the union – or fusion or merger – of equity and law in New York state, and the Field Code was widely adopted in other states. Field’s vision of the union of law and equity has prevailed in the United States, including at the federal level, at least in theory. However, the practise of law and acts of the courts indicate that the reality is rather different. Equity was not sundered by the Field Code or its federal counterpart, the Federal Code of Civil Procedure 1938. Equity continues to operate distinctly in various ways, even if it is less well understood now. Field’s own behaviour as an attorney was also ambivalent: where he maintained a strong posture against equity in theory, his practice as an attorney revealed his willingness to continue to recognise and rely on equity even under his Code.

The most frequently expressed concern is whether early bilinguals will be able to differentiate their languages. Research on child bilingualism has demonstrated that this is indeed the case. Children acquiring two languages simultaneously are able to differentiate their lexical and grammatical systems from very early on. Ocassional language mixing is not an indication of an underlying unitary system, fusing two or more linguistic competences. Rather, mixing is a performance phenomenon. Most mixed utterances are instances of code-switching, i.e. linguistic behaviour constrained by grammatical and sociolinguistic principles. Early mixes may also result from a choice of language that is unexpected from an adult perspective. Choosing the adequate language in bilingual settings requires sociolinguistic knowledge that is acquired in the course of children’s socialization. Parents can support bilingual L1 acquisition by their own linguistic behaviour. Following the ‘one person, one language’ (OPOL) principle is a method that has been applied successfully for over 100 years.