A puzzling fact about linguistic norms is that they are mainly stable, but the conventional variant sometimes changes. These transitions seem to be mostly S-shaped and, therefore, directed. Previous models have suggested possible mechanisms to explain these directed changes, mainly based on a bias favoring the innovative variant. What is still debated is what is the mechanism that leads to such a bias. In this paper we propose a refined taxonomy of mechanisms of language change and identify a family a mechanisms explaining self-actuated language changes. We exemplify this type of mechanism with the preference-based selection mechanism that relies on agents having dynamical preferences for different variants of the linguistic norm. The key point is that if these preferences can align through social interactions, then new changes can be actuated. We present results of a multi-agent model and demonstrate that the model produces trajectories that are typical of language change.