Syntactic Effects of Morphological Change
Published on 27. June 2002
Book
Paperback/Softback
424 pages
978-0-19-925069-1 (ISBN)
Description
David Lightfoot's collection explores a central aspect of language change: the nature and degree to which changes in morphology (inflectional word endings, for example) cause changes in syntax (for example, in word order). The 22 contributors consider such phenomena within the context of Chomsky's minimalist revision of his principles (of universal grammar) and parameters (of individual languages) theory. They also address some of the main unanswered problems associated with Professor Lightfoot's hypothesis that all grammatical change is driven by the way in which children acquire language. These questions are discussed in the context of a wide range of languages by distinguished scholars from around the world.
There are 21 chapters divided into 4 parts: Morphologically Driven Changes, Indirect Links Between Morphology and Syntax, Independent Changes in Movement Operations, and Computer Simulations.
There are 21 chapters divided into 4 parts: Morphologically Driven Changes, Indirect Links Between Morphology and Syntax, Independent Changes in Movement Operations, and Computer Simulations.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
Figures and tables
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 156 mm
Thickness: 23 mm
Weight
641 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-925069-1 (9780199250691)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
David W. Lightfoot
Syntactic Effects of Morphological Change
Book
06/2002
Oxford University Press
€115.70
Shipment within 15-20 days
Person
David W. Lightfoot is Dean of the Graduate School at Georgetown University. Until recently he was Professor of Linguistics and Associate Director of the Neural and Cognitive Science Program at the University of Maryland with a joint appointment as Professor of Linguistics at the University of Reading. His books include Principles of Diachronic Syntax (CUP 1979), The Language Lottery: Toward a Biology of Grammars (MIT Press, 1982), How to Set Parameters: Arguments from Language Change (MIT Press, 1991), and The Development of Language: Acquisition, Change, and Evolution (Blackwell, 1999).
Content
1. Introduction ; PART I: MORPHOLOGICALLY DRIVEN CHANGES ; 2. The History of the Future ; 3. Case and Middle English Genitive Noun Phrases ; 4. Split Constituents Within NP in the History of English: Commentary on Allen ; 5. Inflectional Morphology and the Loss of Verb-Second in English ; 6. The Rise of the to Dative in Middle English ; 7. Double Objects and Morphological Triggers for Syntactic Case ; 8. Cue-Based Change: Inflection and Subjects in the History of Portuguese Infinitives ; 9. Loss of Verbal Morphology and the Status of Referential Null Subjects in Brazilian Portuguese ; 10. Loss of Overt Wh-Movement in Old Japanese ; 11. Changes in Subject Case Marking in Icelandic ; PART II: INDIRECT LINKS BETWEEN MORPHOLOGY AND SYNTAX ; 12. A Reinterpretation of the loss of verb-second in Welsh ; 13. The Loss of IP-Scrambling in Portuguese: Clause Structure, Word Order Variation and Change ; PART III: INDEPENDENT CHANGES IN MOVEMENT OPERATIONS ; 14. Residual V-to-I ; 15. Syntax and Morphology are Different: Commentary on Jonas ; 16. Verb-Object Order in Old English: Variation as Grammatical Competition ; 17. VO or OV? That's the Underlying Question: Commentary on Pintzuk ; 18. Movement, Morphology, and Learnability ; 19. Object Shift and Holmberg's Generalization in the History of Norwegian ; PART IV: COMPUTER SIMULATIONS ; 20. The Computational Study of Diachronic Linguistics ; 21. Grammar Competition and Language Change