Diachronic clues to synchronic grammar / edited by Eric Fuss, Carola Trips.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Fuss, Eric.

Trips, Carola.

Series:

Linguistik aktuell ; Bd. 72.

Linguistik aktuell = Linguistics today, 0166-0829 ; v. 72

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Linguistic change.

Grammar, Comparative and general.

Physical Description:

vii, 226 p. : ill.

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Philadelphia : J. Benjamins, c2004.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This volume emphasizes a new line of thinking in generative grammar which acknowledges that certain synchronic properties of languages can only be fully understood if diachronic data is taken into consideration. The central topics addressed in this collection of papers are (1) a critical assessment of the hypothesis that certain apparently synchronic generalizations are actually the result of the mechanisms of language change, (2) an inquiry into how diachronic data can be used to evaluate and shape formal analyses of particular synchronic phenomena. Reviving the interest in diachronic explanations for synchronic data, the contributions provide novel and original diachronic accounts of phenomena that up to now have escaped a deeper synchronic explanation, including the nature of EPP features, gaps in the distribution of complementizer agreement, and counterexamples to the generalization that rich verbal inflection correlates with verb movement.

Contents:

Diachronic Clues to Synchronic Grammar

Editorial page

Title page

LCC page

Table of contents

Preface

Introduction

1. Generative approaches to diachronic phenomena

2. The logical problem of language change

3. On the status of diachronic explanations

4. The contributions

Notes

References

On the development of possessive determiners

1. Introduction

2. Theoretical background

3. The DP layer in Old English

4. Possessive pronouns in Old English

4.1. Morphology and distribution

4.2. Word order patterns in Old English

5. Possessive pronouns in Middle English

6. From XP to clitic

7. Possessive pronouns in German and French

7.1. German

7.2. French

8. Summary

Diachronic clues to pro-drop and complementizer agreement in Bavarian

2. The diachronic development of Agr-on-C in Bavarian

2.1. 2sg -st

2.2. 2pl -ts

2.3. 1pl -ma in Lower Bavarian

3. Towards an analysis

3.1. A synchronic account of complementizer agreement in Germanic

3.2. The diachrony of Agr-on-C: syntactic aspects

3.3. Morphological aspects

4. Conclusions

Syntactic effects of inflectional morphology and competing grammars

2. Syntactic variation and morphological variation

3. `XP-subject' orders in Germanic

3.1. `XP-subject' in West Germanic

3.2. `XP-subject' in Mainland Scandinavian

3.3. Morphology, syntax and diachronic change

3.4. `XP-subject' in Mainland Scandinavian revisited

3.5. Summary

4. Word order freedom and case morphology in the history of English

5. Conclusion

Language change versus grammar change

2. The change from OV to VO in English

2.1. Differences between German and English.

2.2. Word order and peripheral rules in the older stages of Germanic

3. Unmarked word order and the Universal Base Hypothesis

4. Options in grammar and the role of prosodic constraints

5. Stylistic change? The development of the German sentence bracket

5.1. The role of information-structure

5.2. The grammar of focus

The EPP, fossilized movement and reanalysis

2. Post-verbal modals in southeast Asia

3. Taiwanese, tone sandhi and post-verbal potential modals

4. Cantonese

5. Triggers for movement, fossilization and the EPP

6. Reversal or reanalysis?

7. Concluding remarks

Restructuring and the development of functional categories

2. Resultative Verb Constructions/RVCs

3. V2-object predication in RVCs

4. The historical development of RVCs

5. Object/V2 re-positioning and directionality

6. Summary and general conclusions

Index

The series Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9786612254376

9781423766407

1423766407

9789027295200

9027295204

9781282254374

1282254375

OCLC:

488557484