Diachronic Clues To Synchronic Grammar

Author : Eric Fuß,Carola Trips
Publisher : John Benjamins Publishing
Page : 238 pages
File Size : 53,9 Mb
Release : 2004-10-13
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9789027295200

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Diachronic Clues to Synchronic Grammar by Eric Fuß,Carola Trips Pdf

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.

Author : Eric Fuss,Carola Trips
Publisher : John Benjamins Publishing
Page : 242 pages
File Size : 54,9 Mb
Release : 2004-01-01
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9027227969

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Diachronic Clues to Synchronic Grammar by Eric Fuss,Carola Trips Pdf

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.

Author : T. Givón
Publisher : John Benjamins Publishing Company
Page : 928 pages
File Size : 47,8 Mb
Release : 2015-09-15
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9789027268884

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The Diachrony of Grammar by T. Givón Pdf

The case-studies assembled in these two volumes span a lifetime of research into the diachrony of grammar. That is, into the rise and fall of syntactic constructions and their attendant grammatical morphology. While focused squarely on the data, the studies are nonetheless cast in an explicit theoretical perspective – adaptive, developmental, variationist. Taken as a whole, this work constitutes a frontal assault on Ferdinand de Saussure's corrosive legacy in linguistics. Over the years, reviewers slapped the author's wrist periodically for having dared to commit that most heinous of sins against de Saussure's hallowed legacy – panchronic grammar. In this work he pleads guilty, having never seen a piece of synchronic data that didn't reek, to high heaven, of the diachrony that gave it rise. Reek in two distinct ways: first with the frozen relics of the past that prompt us to reconstruct prior diachronic states; and second with the synchronic variation that hints at ongoing change. Conversely, the author confesses to having never seen a diachronic explanation that did not hinge on the synchronic principles – Carnap's general propositions – that govern language behavior. The synchrony and diachrony of grammar are twin faces of the same coin. To study one without the other is to gut both. By understanding how synchronic grammars come into being we also understand the cognitive, communicative, neurological and developmental universals that constrain diachronic change – and through it synchronic typology.

Author : Federica Cognola,Jan Casalicchio
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 336 pages
File Size : 45,7 Mb
Release : 2018-04-19
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9780192547880

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Null Subjects in Generative Grammar by Federica Cognola,Jan Casalicchio Pdf

This book considers the null-subject phenomenon, whereby some languages lack an overtly realized referential subject in specific contexts. In generative syntax-the approach adopted in this volume-the phenomenon has traditionally been explained in terms of a 'pro-drop' parameter with associated cluster properties; more recently, however, it has become clear that pro-drop phenomena do not always correlate with all the initially predicted cluster properties. This volume returns to the centre of the debate surrounding the empirical phenomena associated with null subjects. Experts in the field explore the cluster properties associated with pro-drop; the types of null category involved in null-subject phenomena and their identification; and the typology of null-subject languages, with a special focus on partial null-subject languages. Chapters include both novel empirical data and new theoretical analyses covering the major approaches to null subjects in generative grammar. A wide range of languages are examined, ranging from the most commonly studied in research into null subjects, such as Finnish and Italian, to lesser-studied languages such as Vietnamese and Polish, minority languages such as Cimbrian and Kashubian, and historical varieties such as Old French and Old High German. The research presented also contributes to the understanding of other key syntactic phenomena, such as the nature of control, the role of information structure and semantics in syntax, the mechanisms of language change, and the formalization of language variation. The breadth and depth of the volume will make it a valuable resource not only for generative syntacticians, but also for all those working in the fields of historical linguistics, typology, comparative grammar, semantics, and theoretical and descriptive linguistics more generally.

Author : Antonio Fábregas,Víctor Acedo-Matellán,Grant Armstrong,María Cristina Cuervo,Isabel Pujol Payet
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 857 pages
File Size : 42,9 Mb
Release : 2021-05-03
Category : Foreign Language Study
ISBN : 9781000371604

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The Routledge Handbook of Spanish Morphology by Antonio Fábregas,Víctor Acedo-Matellán,Grant Armstrong,María Cristina Cuervo,Isabel Pujol Payet Pdf

The Routledge Handbook of Spanish Morphology presents a state-of-the-art, detailed and exhaustive overview of all aspects of Spanish morphology, paying equal attention to the empirical complexities of the morphological system and the theoretical issues that they raise. As such, this handbook is relevant both for those interested in the facts of Spanish morphology and those interested in general morphology that want to explore how the Spanish facts illuminate our understanding of human language and current theories of morphology. This volume is also unique in its extent and coverage. Written by an international team of leading experts in the field, it contains 42 chapters divided into four sections, covering all synchronic and diachronic aspects of Spanish morphology, including inflection; derivation; compounding and other processes of word formation; the interaction of morphology with other modules of grammar and the role of morphology in language acquisition, psycholinguistics and language teaching.

Author : Günther Grewendorf,Helmut Weiß
Publisher : John Benjamins Publishing Company
Page : 347 pages
File Size : 46,7 Mb
Release : 2014-11-15
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9789027269355

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Bavarian Syntax by Günther Grewendorf,Helmut Weiß Pdf

Dialect syntax has proven to be an invaluable data source for theoretical syntax, and theoretical syntax has provided useful analytical tools for uncovering fascinating grammatical properties of dialects. In the 1980s, the assumption that there must be more than one structural position in the left periphery of the clause was confirmed (among others) by so-called "doubly filled COMPs" in Bavarian (e.g. the co-occurrence of a wh-phrase and a complementizer), and in the 1990s, Northern Italian dialects provided the main empirical evidence for Rizzi’s extended theory of the left clausal periphery (the so-called "Split-C-hypothesis"). Among German dialects, Bavarian played a prominent role from the beginning: in addition to doubly-filled COMPs we find phenomena such as complementizer agreement, partial pro-drop, pronominal clitics, extractions from finite clauses introduced by complementizers, negative concord, parasitic gaps, or double possessors, all of which are fascinating and highly relevant for theoretical syntax. The contributions in this volume investigate and analyze a wide range of topics from Bavarian syntax with the focus on implications for general theoretical questions. This volume is of interest for any linguist interested in syntactic theory and dialect syntax.

Author : Ian Roberts
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 720 pages
File Size : 42,9 Mb
Release : 2017-01-12
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9780191643682

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The Oxford Handbook of Universal Grammar by Ian Roberts Pdf

This handbook provides a critical guide to the most central proposition in modern linguistics: the notion, generally known as Universal Grammar, that a universal set of structural principles underlies the grammatical diversity of the world's languages. Part I considers the implications of Universal Grammar for philosophy of mind and philosophy of language, and examines the history of the theory. Part II focuses on linguistic theory, looking at topics such as explanatory adequacy and how phonology and semantics fit into Universal Grammar. Parts III and IV look respectively at the insights derived from UG-inspired research on language acquisition, and at comparative syntax and language typology, while part V considers the evidence for Universal Grammar in phenomena such as creoles, language pathology, and sign language. The book will be a vital reference for linguists, philosophers, and cognitive scientists.

Author : Bela Brogyanyi
Publisher : John Benjamins Publishing
Page : 1009 pages
File Size : 50,7 Mb
Release : 1979
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 9789027235046

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Studies in Diachronic, Synchronic, and Typological Linguistics by Bela Brogyanyi Pdf

Author : Eric Fuß
Publisher : John Benjamins Publishing
Page : 352 pages
File Size : 47,6 Mb
Release : 2005-10-13
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9789027294142

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The Rise of Agreement by Eric Fuß Pdf

This book investigates the historical paths leading from pronouns to markers of verbal agreement and proposes a unified formal account of this grammaticalization process. In opposition to beliefs widely held in the literature, it is argued that new agreement formatives can be coined in a multitude of syntactic environments. Still, the individual paths toward agreement are shown to exhibit a set of underlying similarities which are attributed to universal principles that govern the reanalysis of pronominal clitics as exponents of verbal agreement across languages. It is claimed that syntactic principles impose only a set of necessary conditions on the reanalysis in question, while its ultimate trigger is morphological in nature. More specifically, it is argued that the acquisition of inflectional morphology is governed by blocking effects which operate during language acquisition and promote the grammaticalization of new markers if this change serves to replace ‘worn-out’, underspecified forms with new, more specified candidates.

Author : Rochelle Lieber,Pavol Štekauer
Publisher : Oxford Handbooks
Page : 961 pages
File Size : 55,8 Mb
Release : 2014
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9780199641642

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The Oxford Handbook of Derivational Morphology by Rochelle Lieber,Pavol Štekauer Pdf

The Oxford Handbook of Derivational Morphology is intended as a companion volume to the Oxford Handbook of Compounding (OUP 2009), aiming to provide a comprehensive and thorough overview of the study of derivational morphology. Written by distinguished scholars, its 41 chapters are devoted to theoretical and definitional matters, formal and semantic issues, interdisciplinary connections, and detailed descriptions of derivational processes in a wide range of language families. It presents the reader with the current state of the art in the study of derivational morphology. The handbook begins with an overview and a consideration of definitional matters, distinguishing derivation from inflection on the one hand and compounding on the other. From a formal perspective, the handbook treats affixation (prefixation, suffixation, infixation, circumfixation, etc.), conversion, reduplication, root and pattern and other templatic processes, as well as prosodic and subtractive means of forming new words. From a semantic perspective, it looks at the processes that form various types of adjectives, adverbs, nouns, and verbs, as well as evaluatives and the rarer processes that form function words. Chapters are devoted to issues of theory, methodology, the historical development of derivation, and to child language acquisition, sociolinguistic, experimental, and psycholinguistic approaches. The second half of the book surveys derivation in fifteen language families that are widely dispersed in terms of both geographical location and typological characteristics. It ends with a consideration of both areal tendencies in derivation and the issue of universals.

Author : Theresa Biberauer,George Walkden
Publisher : OUP Oxford
Page : 432 pages
File Size : 49,6 Mb
Release : 2015-02-27
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9780191511745

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Syntax over Time by Theresa Biberauer,George Walkden Pdf

This book provides a critical investigation of syntactic change and the factors that influence it. Converging empirical and theoretical considerations have suggested that apparent instances of syntactic change may be attributable to factors outside syntax proper, such as morphology or information structure. Some even go so far as to propose that there is no such thing as syntactic change, and that all such change in fact takes place in the lexicon or in the phonological component. In this volume, international scholars examine these proposals, drawing on detailed case studies from Germanic, Romance, Chinese, Egyptian, Finnic, Hungarian, and Sámi. They aim to answer such questions as: Can syntactic change arise without an external impetus? How can we tell whether a given change is caused by information-structural or morphological factors? What can 'microsyntactic' investigations of changes in individual lexical items tell us about the bigger picture? How universal are the clausal and nominal templates ('cartography'), and to what extent is syntactic structure more generally subject to universal constraints? The book will be of interest to all linguists working on syntactic variation and change, and especially those who believe that historical linguistics and linguistic theory can, and should, inform one another.

Author : Andrew Radford
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 564 pages
File Size : 53,8 Mb
Release : 2023-07-31
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9781009322973

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Analysing English Sentence Structure by Andrew Radford Pdf

Andrew Radford has acquired an unrivalled reputation over the past forty years for writing syntax textbooks in which difficult concepts are clearly explained without excessive use of technical jargon. Analysing English Sentence Structure continues in this tradition, offering a well-structured intermediate course in English syntax and contemporary syntactic theory. Chapters are split into core modules, each focusing on a specific topic, and the reader is supported throughout with learning aids such as summaries, lists of key hypotheses and principles, extensive references, exercises with handy hints, and a glossary of terminology. Both teachers and instructors will benefit from the book's free online resources, which comprise an open-access Students' Answerbook, and a password-protected Teachers' Answerbook, each containing comprehensive answers to exercises, with detailed tree diagrams. The book and accompanying resources are designed to serve both as a coursebook for use in class, and as a self-study resource for use at home.

Author : Anonim
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 597 pages
File Size : 46,9 Mb
Release : 2024-07-02
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 9780521660082

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Analysing English Sentences by Anonim Pdf

Author : Peter W. Culicover
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 327 pages
File Size : 47,5 Mb
Release : 2013-04-04
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9780199654598

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Grammar & Complexity by Peter W. Culicover Pdf

This book combines ideas about the architecture of grammar and language acquisition, processing, and change to explain why languages show regular patterns when there is so much irregularity in their use and so much complexity when there is such regularity in linguistic phenomena. Peter Culicover argues that the structure of language can be understood and explained in terms of two kinds of complexity: firstly that of the correspondence between form and meaning; secondly in the real-time processes involved in the construction of meanings in linguistic expressions. Mainstream syntactic theory has focused largely on regularities within and across languages, relegating to the periphery exceptional and idiosyncratic phenomena. But, the author argues, a languages irregular and unique features offer fundamental insights into the nature of language, how it changes, and how it is produced and understood. Peter Culicover's new book offers a pertinent and original contribution to key current debates in linguistic theory. It will interest scholars and advanced students of linguists of all theoretical persuasions.

Author : Stefan Müller
Publisher : Language Science Press
Page : 879 pages
File Size : 46,9 Mb
Release : 2018
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9783961102730

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Grammatical theory by Stefan Müller Pdf

This book introduces formal grammar theories that play a role in current linguistic theorizing (Phrase Structure Grammar, Transformational Grammar/Government & Binding, Generalized Phrase Structure Grammar, Lexical Functional Grammar, Categorial Grammar, Head-​Driven Phrase Structure Grammar, Construction Grammar, Tree Adjoining Grammar). The key assumptions are explained and it is shown how the respective theory treats arguments and adjuncts, the active/passive alternation, local reorderings, verb placement, and fronting of constituents over long distances. The analyses are explained with German as the object language. The second part of the book compares these approaches with respect to their predictions regarding language acquisition and psycholinguistic plausibility. The nativism hypothesis, which assumes that humans posses genetically determined innate language-specific knowledge, is critically examined and alternative models of language acquisition are discussed. The second part then addresses controversial issues of current theory building such as the question of flat or binary branching structures being more appropriate, the question whether constructions should be treated on the phrasal or the lexical level, and the question whether abstract, non-visible entities should play a role in syntactic analyses. It is shown that the analyses suggested in the respective frameworks are often translatable into each other. The book closes with a chapter showing how properties common to all languages or to certain classes of languages can be captured.