Diachronic Syntax: Models and Mechanisms

by Susan Pintzuk, George Tsoulas, Anthony Warner

Overview

Linguistic theory has undergone deep changes since the early 1990's, given the widespread impact of Chomsky's Minimalist Programme, Kayne's Antisymmetry Theory, and Kayne's Theory of Overt Movement. This work has brought into sharper focus questions concerning the architecture of linguistic theory that have a direct impact on our understanding of the process of change. Here, Pintzuk, Tsoulas, and Warner have brought together chapters which demonstrate the pivotal position of historical syntax within the larger domain of research into the nature, use, and acquisition of language. They show how current work in historical syntax is responsive to theoretical advances in linguistic theory, language acquisition, sociolinguistics, and theories of language use, as well as to less adjacent fields such as statistical techniques and evolutionary biology.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780198250265
Publisher:	Oxford University Press, USA
Publication date:	04/12/2001
Series:	Oxford Linguistics Series
Pages:	392
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Susan Pintzuk is Lecturer in Linguistics in the Department of Language and Linguistic Science at the University of York. Her research interests include syntactic variation and change in the history of English; and quantitative modelling of syntactic change in Germanic. She is currently investigating, both quantitatively and qualitatively, the change in verb-complement word order in the history of English. She also collaborates with researchers in the USA, the Netherlands, and Switzerland on the syntactic annotation for the Old English section of the Helsinki corpus.

George Tsoulas is Lecturer in Linguistics and French in the Department of Language and Linguistic Science at the University of York. His research interests include syntactic theory (especially Minimalism); syntax/semantics interface; syntax of Greek and French; and philosophy of Language.

Anthony Warner is Senior Lecturer in Linguistics in the Department of Language and Linguistic Science at the University of Yo

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Syntactic Change: Theory and Method, Susan Pintzuk, George Tsoulas, and Anthony Warner
Part I: Frameworks for the Understanding of Change
Chapter 2: Competition and Correspondence in Syntactic Change: Null Arguments in Latin and Romance, Nigel Vincent
Chapter 3: Jespersen's Cycle Revisited: Formal Properties of Grammaticalization, Ans van Kemenade
Chapter 4: Evolutionary Perspectives on Diachronic Syntax, Ted Briscoe
Part II: The Comparative Basis of Diachronic Syntax Chapter 5: Adjuncts and the Syntax of Subjects in Old and Middle English, Eric Haeberli
Chapter 6: Verb-Object Order in Early Middle English, Anthony Kroch and Ann Taylor
Chapter 7: Null Subjects in Middle English Existentials, Alexander Williams
Part III: Mechanisms of Syntactic Change: 1. Features and Categories
Chapter 8: Polarity Items in Romance: Underspecification and Lexical Change, Ana Maria Martins
2. Movement
Chapter 10: The Value of Definite Determiners from Old Spanish to Modern Spanish, Montse Batllori and Francesc Roca
Chapter 11: From OV to VO in Swedish, Lars-Olof Delsing
Chapter 12: The Evolution of Do-support in English Imperatives, Chung-hye Han
Chapter 13: Interacting Movements in the History of Icelandic, Thorbjörg Hróarsdóttir
Chapter 14: Verb Movement in Slavonic Conditionals, David Willis