The Role of Semantic, Pragmatic, and Discourse Factors in the Development of Case
Selected Papers from the 37th Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages (LSRL), Pittsburgh, 15-18 March 2007
1st Edition
Published on 11. March 2009
XX, 432 pages
978-90-272-8992-6 (ISBN)
Description
The aim of this volume is to bring non-syntactic factors in the development of case into the eye of the research field, by illustrating the integral role of pragmatics, semantics, and discourse structure in the historical development of morphologically marked case systems. The articles represent fifteen typologically diverse languages from four different language families: (i) Indo-European: Vedic Sanskrit, Russian, Greek, Latin, Latvian, Gothic, French, German, Icelandic, and Faroese; (ii) Tibeto-Burman, especially the Bodic languages and Meithei; (iii) Japanese; and (iv) the Pama-Nyungan mixed language Gurindji Kriol. The data also show considerable diversity and include elicited, archival, corpus-based, and naturally occurring data. Discussions of mechanisms where change is obtained include semantically and aspectually motivated synchronic case variation, discourse motivated subject marking, reduction or expansion of case marker distribution, case syncretism motivated by semantics, syntax, or language contact, and case splits motivated by pragmatics, metonymy, and subjectification.
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Johanna Bar?dal | Shobhana L. Chelliah
The Role of Semantic, Pragmatic, and Discourse Factors in the Development of Case
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Content
List of contributors
Introduction: The role of semantic, pragmatic and discourse factors in the development of case
Jóhanna Barðdal and Shobhana L. Chelliah
Part I. Semantically and aspectually motivated synchronic case variation
Case variation in Gothic absolute constructions
Tonya Kim Dewey and Yasmin Syed
Some semantic and pragmatic aspects of object alternation in Early Vedic
Eystein Dahl
Part II. Discourse motivated subject marking
The case of the shifty ergative marker: A pragmatic shift in the ergative marker of one Australian mixed language
Felicity Meakins
How useful is case morphology? The loss of the Old French two-case system within a theory of Preferred Argument structure
Ulrich Detges
Part III. Reduction or expansion of case marker distribution
The development of case in Germanic
Jóhanna Barðdal
A usage-based approach to change: Old Russian possessive constructions
Hanne Martine Eckhoff
Lacking in Latvian: Case variation from a cognitive and constructional perspective
Sturla Berg-Olsen
Verb classes and dative objects in Insular Scandinavian
Jóhannes Gísli Jónsson
Transitive adjectives in Japanese
Daniela Caluianu
Part IV. Case syncretism motivated by syntax, semantics or language contact
Patterns of development, patterns of syncretism of relational morphology in the Bodic languages
Michael Noonan
The evolution of local cases and their grammatical equivalent in Greek and Latin
Silvia Luraghi
Argument structure and alignment variations and changes in Late Latin
Michela Cennamo
Case loss in Texas German: The influence of semantic and pragmatic factors
Hans C. Boas
Part V. Case splits motivated by pragmatics, metonymy and subjectification
Semantic role to new information in Meithei
Shobhana L. Chelliah
From less personal to more personal: Subjectification of ni-marked NPs in Japanese discourse
Misumi Sadler
Author index
Subject index
Introduction: The role of semantic, pragmatic and discourse factors in the development of case
Jóhanna Barðdal and Shobhana L. Chelliah
Part I. Semantically and aspectually motivated synchronic case variation
Case variation in Gothic absolute constructions
Tonya Kim Dewey and Yasmin Syed
Some semantic and pragmatic aspects of object alternation in Early Vedic
Eystein Dahl
Part II. Discourse motivated subject marking
The case of the shifty ergative marker: A pragmatic shift in the ergative marker of one Australian mixed language
Felicity Meakins
How useful is case morphology? The loss of the Old French two-case system within a theory of Preferred Argument structure
Ulrich Detges
Part III. Reduction or expansion of case marker distribution
The development of case in Germanic
Jóhanna Barðdal
A usage-based approach to change: Old Russian possessive constructions
Hanne Martine Eckhoff
Lacking in Latvian: Case variation from a cognitive and constructional perspective
Sturla Berg-Olsen
Verb classes and dative objects in Insular Scandinavian
Jóhannes Gísli Jónsson
Transitive adjectives in Japanese
Daniela Caluianu
Part IV. Case syncretism motivated by syntax, semantics or language contact
Patterns of development, patterns of syncretism of relational morphology in the Bodic languages
Michael Noonan
The evolution of local cases and their grammatical equivalent in Greek and Latin
Silvia Luraghi
Argument structure and alignment variations and changes in Late Latin
Michela Cennamo
Case loss in Texas German: The influence of semantic and pragmatic factors
Hans C. Boas
Part V. Case splits motivated by pragmatics, metonymy and subjectification
Semantic role to new information in Meithei
Shobhana L. Chelliah
From less personal to more personal: Subjectification of ni-marked NPs in Japanese discourse
Misumi Sadler
Author index
Subject index
