Grammaticalising the perfect and explanations of language change : have- and be-perfects in the history and structure of English and Bulgarian / by Bozhil Hristov.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hristov, Bozhil, 1984- author.

Series:

Brill's studies in historical linguistics ; v. 10.

Brill's studies in historical linguistics, 22114904 ; volume 10

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

English language--Tense.

English language.

Bulgarian language--Tense.

Bulgarian language.

English language--Grammar, Comparative--Bulgarian.

Bulgarian language--Grammar, Comparative--English.

Bulgarian language--Grammar, Comparative.

English language--Grammar, Comparative.

Physical Description:

xiv, 368 pages ; 25 cm.

Place of Publication:

Leiden ; Boston : Brill, [2020]

Summary:

"In Grammaticalising the Perfect and Explanations of Language Change: Have- and Be-Perfects in the History and Structure of English and Bulgarian, Bozhil Hristov investigates key aspects of the verbal systems of two distantly related Indo-European languages, highlighting similarities as well as crucial differences between them and seeking a unified approach. The book reassesses some long-held notions and functionalist assumptions and shines the spotlight on certain areas that have received less attention, such as the role of ambiguity in actual usage. The detailed analysis of rich, contextualised material from a selection of texts dovetails with large-scale corpus studies, complementing their findings and enhancing our understanding of the phenomena. This monograph thus presents a happy marriage of traditional philological techniques and recent advances in theoretical linguistics and corpus work"-- Provided by publisher.

In 'Grammaticalising the Perfect and Explanations of Language Change: Have- and Be-Perfects in the History and Structure of English and Bulgarian', Bozhil Hristov investigates key aspects of the verbal systems of two distantly related Indo-European languages, highlighting similarities as well as crucial differences between them and seeking a unified approach.00The book reassesses some long-held notions and functionalist assumptions and shines the spotlight on certain areas that have received less attention, such as the role of ambiguity in actual usage. The detailed analysis of rich, contextualised material from a selection of texts dovetails with large-scale corpus studies, complementing their findings and enhancing our understanding of the phenomena. This monograph thus presents a happy marriage of traditional philological techniques and recent advances in theoretical linguistics and corpus work.

Contents:

Introduction

Theoretical preliminaries

The story of the English perfect

The development of the perfect in a selection of Old English texts

Further development of the perfect based on a selection of texts from Middle to Modern English

How things could have been: a glance at German

The perfect in the history and structure of Bulgarian

The development of the perfect in a selection of Middle and Modern Bulgarian texts

Conclusions.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Hristov, Bozhil, Grammaticalising the perfect and explanations of language change

ISBN:

9789004414327

9004414320

OCLC:

1124778523