Historical Syntax and Linguistic Theory

by Paola Crisma, Giuseppe Longobardi

Overview

This book of new work by leading international scholars considers developments in the study of diachronic linguistics and linguistic theory, including those concerned with the very definition of language change in the biolinguistic framework, parametric change in a minimalist conception of grammar, the tension between the observed gradual nature of language change and the binary nature of parameters, and whether syntactic change can be triggered internally or requires the external stimuli produced by phonological or morphological change or through language contact. It then tests their value and applicability by examining syntactic change at different times and in a wide range of languages, including German, Chinese, Dutch, Sanskrit, Egyptian, Norwegian, old Italian, Portuguese, English, the Benue-Kwa languages of Niger-Congo, Catalan, Spanish, and old French. The book is divided into three parts devoted to (i) theoretical issues in historical syntax; (ii) external (such as contact and interference) and internal (grammatical) sources of morphosynactic change; and (iii) parameter setting and reanalysis.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199560547
Publisher:	Oxford University Press, USA
Publication date:	05/15/2009
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Paola Crisma studied in Venice, Geneva and Los Angeles and is currently Assistant Professor in English Linguistics at the University of Trieste, after teaching at Padua and being a Fulbright visiting scholar at MIT and UCLA. She has published on comparative syntax, syntax acquisition, and history of English.

Giuseppe Longobardi graduated from Pisa and is now Professor of General Linguistics at the University of Trieste, after teaching at Pisa and Venice. He held visiting positions at Vienna, UCLA, USC, Harvard, the CNRS in Paris, and published extensively on syntactic theory and historical syntax.

Table of Contents

1. Change, Relatedness, and Inertia in Historical Syntax, Paola Crisma and Giuseppe Longobardi
Part I: Theoretical Issues in Historical Syntax
2. Linguistic Theory and the Historical Creation of English Reflexives, Edward L. Keenan
3. Spontaneous Syntactic Change, Chris H. Reintges
4. The Return of the Subset Principle, Theresa Biberauer and Ian Roberts
5. Many Small Catastrophes: Gradualism in a Microparametric Perspective, Marit R. Westergaard
Part II: External and Internal Sources of Morphosyntaactic Change
6. Feature Economy in the Linguistic Cycle, Elly van Gelderen
7. Sources of Change in the German Syntax of Negation, Agnes Jäger
8. The Consolidation of Verb-Second in Old High German: What Role did Subject Pronouns Play?, Katrin Axel
9. Syntactic Change as Chain Reaction: The Emergence of Hyper-Raising in Brazilian Portuguese, Ana Maria Martins and Jairo Nunes
10. On the Emergence of ter as an Existential Verb in Brazilian Portuguese, Juanito Avelar
11. Gradience and Auxiliary Selection in Old Catalan and Old Spanish, Jaume Mateu
12. Verb-to-Preposition Reanalysis in Chinese, Redouane Djamouri and Waltraud Paul
13. Downward Reanalysis and the Rise of Stative HAVE Got, Heidi Quinn
Part III: Parameter Resetting and Reanalysis
14. The Old Chinese Determiner zhe, Edith Aldridge
15. Grammaticalization of Modals in Dutch: Uncontingent Change, Griet Coupé and Ans van Kemenade
16. Correlative Clause Features in Sanskrit and Hindi/Urdu, Alice Davison
17. For a Diachronic Theory of Genitive Assignment in Romance, Denis Delfitto and Paola Paradisi
18. Expletive pro and Misagreement in Late Middle English, Kleanthes K. Grohmann and RIchard Ingham
19. Morphosyntactic Parameters and the Internal Classification of Denue-Kwa (Niger-Congo), VIctor Manfredi
20. On the Germanic Properties of Old French, Éric Mathieu
21. A Parametric Shift in the D-system in Early Middle English: Relativization, Articles, Adjectival Inflection, and Indeterminates, Akira Watanabe