Diachronic Syntax
Models and Mechanisms
Published on 22. February 2001
Book
Hardback
392 pages
978-0-19-825026-5 (ISBN)
Description
Historical syntax occupies a pivotal position within the larger field of research into the nature, use, and acquisition of language. It is responsive to theoretical advances in linguistic theory, language acquisition, and theories of language use, as well as to less adjacent fields such as statistical techniques and evolutionary biology.
Linguistic theory has undergone deep changes since the early 1990s, 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. At the same time, the recently developed framework of Optimality Theory, which has had a major influence in phonology, is beginning to provide new insights and raise new questions as it is applied to syntax and historical change. This collection of new writing by largely generative-based syntacticians advances this work.
This book contains selected material from the Fifth Diachronic Generative Syntax Conference (DIGS 5) held in 1998. The chapters have been chosen to reflect developments in the study of language change and variation, and to exemplify work in a wide range of languages, including Germanic, Romance, Celtic, Slavic, and Sinitic. The book is divided into parts dealing with theoretical frameworks, comparative change, features and categories, and movement. A substantial opening chapter by the editors provides a critical overview of the subject and introduces the following chapters.
Linguistic theory has undergone deep changes since the early 1990s, 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. At the same time, the recently developed framework of Optimality Theory, which has had a major influence in phonology, is beginning to provide new insights and raise new questions as it is applied to syntax and historical change. This collection of new writing by largely generative-based syntacticians advances this work.
This book contains selected material from the Fifth Diachronic Generative Syntax Conference (DIGS 5) held in 1998. The chapters have been chosen to reflect developments in the study of language change and variation, and to exemplify work in a wide range of languages, including Germanic, Romance, Celtic, Slavic, and Sinitic. The book is divided into parts dealing with theoretical frameworks, comparative change, features and categories, and movement. A substantial opening chapter by the editors provides a critical overview of the subject and introduces the following chapters.
Reviews / Votes
... provides an excellent survey of recent developments in the field ... The editors have assembled a collection of very substantial papers in which extensive databases, sophisticated statistical analyses, and clever theoretical interpretations are abundantly present. * Journal of Linguistics *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
linguistic tree diagrams
Dimensions
Height: 240 mm
Width: 161 mm
Thickness: 26 mm
Weight
757 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-825026-5 (9780198250265)
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Book
02/2001
Oxford University Press
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Persons
Susan Pintzuk is Lecturer in Linguistics at the University of York. She has research interests in syntactic variation and change in the history of English and other Germanic languages. She is currently working on a research project on the syntax of Old English poetry and (with Anthony Warner and Ann Taylor) the York-Helsinki Parsed Corpus of Old English. She has published articles on Old English syntax; Phrase Structures in Competition: Variation and Change in Old English Word Order (Garland, 1999); and (with David Adger, Bernadette Plunkett, and George Tsoulas) Specifiers: Minimalist Approaches (OUP, 1999).
George Tsoulas is Lecturer in Linguistics at the University of York. He has published articles on the interpretation of pronouns and the syntax of non-finite sentential complementation. His recent research is concerned with the formal theory of quantification, the syntax and semantics of pronominal anaphora, and the syntax of scrambling and multiple subject constructions in Korean and Japanese. He has edited (with David Adger, Bernadette Plunkett, and Susan Pintzuk) Specifiers: Minimalist Approaches (OUP, 1999).
Anthony Warner is Professor of English Linguistics at the University of York. He has a major interest in variation and change in the history of English syntax. He is the author of papers in syntactic change and in phrase structure grammar, and of Complementation in Middle English and the Methodology of Historical Syntax (Croom Helm, 1982), and English Auxiliaries: Structure and History (CUP, 1993).
George Tsoulas is Lecturer in Linguistics at the University of York. He has published articles on the interpretation of pronouns and the syntax of non-finite sentential complementation. His recent research is concerned with the formal theory of quantification, the syntax and semantics of pronominal anaphora, and the syntax of scrambling and multiple subject constructions in Korean and Japanese. He has edited (with David Adger, Bernadette Plunkett, and Susan Pintzuk) Specifiers: Minimalist Approaches (OUP, 1999).
Anthony Warner is Professor of English Linguistics at the University of York. He has a major interest in variation and change in the history of English syntax. He is the author of papers in syntactic change and in phrase structure grammar, and of Complementation in Middle English and the Methodology of Historical Syntax (Croom Helm, 1982), and English Auxiliaries: Structure and History (CUP, 1993).
Editor
Edited byLecturer in Linguistics, Department of Language and Linguistic ScienceEdited byLecturer in Linguistics, Department of Language and Linguistic Science, University of York
Lecturer in Linguistics and French, Department of Language and Linguistic ScienceLecturer in Linguistics and French, Department of Language and Linguistic Science, University of York
Professor in the Department of Language and Linguistic ScienceProfessor in the Department of Language and Linguistic Science, University of York
Content
1. Syntactic Change: Theory and Method ; PART I: FRAMEWORKS FOR THE UNDERSTANDING OF CHANGE ; 2. Competition and Correspondence in Syntactic Change: Null Arguments in Latin and Romance ; 3. Jespersen's Cycle Revisited: Formal Properties of Grammaticalization ; 4. Evolutionary Perspectives on Diachronic Syntax ; PART II: THE COMPARATIVE BASIS OF DIACHRONIC SYNTAX ; 5. Adjuncts and the Syntax of Subjects in Old and Middle English ; 6. Verb-Object Order in Early Middle English ; 7. Null Subjects in Middle English Existentials ; PART III: MECHANISMS OF SYNTACTIC CHANGE ; 8. Polarity Items in Romance: Underspecification and Lexical Change ; 9. Relabelling ; 10. The Value of Definite Determiners from Old Spanish to Modern Spanish ; 11. From OV to VO in Swedish ; 12. The Evolution of Do-Support in English Imperatives ; 13. Interacting Movements in the History of Icelandic ; 14. Verb Movement in Slavonic Conditionals