The NP-strategy for expressing reciprocity : typology, history, syntax and semantics / Elitzur A. Bar-Asher Siegal.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bar-Asher Siegal, Elitzur A., author.

Series:

Typological studies in language ; Volume 127.

Typological studies in language ; Volume 127

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Grammar, Comparative and general--Reciprocals.

Grammar, Comparative and general.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (309 pages).

Place of Publication:

Amsterdam ; Philadelphia : John Benjamins Publishing Company, [2020]

Summary:

"This book provides a comprehensive treatment of the syntax and semantics of a single linguistic phenomenon - the NP-strategy for expressing reciprocity - in synchronic, diachronic, and typological perspectives. It challenges the assumption common in the typological, syntactic, and semantic literature, namely that so-called reciprocal constructions encode symmetric relations. Instead, they are analyzed as constructions encoding unspecified relations. In effect, it provides a new proposal for the truth-conditional semantics of these constructions. More broadly, this book introduces new ways of bringing together historical linguistics and formal semantics, demonstrating how, on the one hand, the inclusion of historical data concerning the sources of reciprocal constructions enriches their synchronic analysis; and how, on the other hand, an analysis of the syntax and the semantics of these constructions serves as a key for understanding their historical origins"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

The types of constructions and their origin

The diachronic development from a two-unit to a one-unit construction

Relics as a syntactic category : Modern Hebrew and Italian constructions as frozen formulae

Heterogeneity : languages with more than one NP-strategy construction

Changing meaning of the NP-strategy constructions

A comparative linguistics study of NP-strategy constructions

The basic meaning of the NP-strategy for expressing reciprocity

Specifying the meaning of the NP-strategy through context.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9789027261687

9027261687