The Limits Of Syntactic Variation

Author : Theresa Biberauer
Publisher : John Benjamins Publishing
Page : 521 pages
File Size : 45,5 Mb
Release : 2008-09-17
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9789027290663

Get Book

The Limits of Syntactic Variation by Theresa Biberauer Pdf

Against the background of the past half century’s typological and generative work on comparative syntax, this volume brings together 16 papers considering what we have learned and may still be able to learn about the nature and extent of syntactic variation. More specifically, it offers a multi-perspective critique of the Principles and Parameters approach to syntactic variation, evaluating the merits and shortcomings of the pre-Minimalist phase of this enterprise and considering and illustrating the possibilities opened up by recent empirical and theoretical advances. Contributions focus on four central topics: firstly, the question of the locus of variation, whether the attested variation may plausibly be understood in parametric terms and, if so, what form such parameters might take; secondly, the fate of one of the most prominent early parameters, the Null Subject Parameter; thirdly, the matter of parametric clusters more generally; and finally, acquisition issues.

Author : Jóhannes Gísli Jónsson,Thórhallur Eythórsson
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 352 pages
File Size : 44,9 Mb
Release : 2021-02-26
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9780192568748

Get Book

Syntactic Features and the Limits of Syntactic Change by Jóhannes Gísli Jónsson,Thórhallur Eythórsson Pdf

This volume brings together the latest diachronic research on syntactic features and their role in restricting syntactic change. The chapters address a central theoretical issue in diachronic syntax: whether syntactic variation can always be attributed to differences in the features of items in the lexicon, as the Borer-Chomsky conjecture proposes. In answering this question, all the chapters develop analyses of syntactic change couched within a formalist framework in which rich hierarchical structures and abstract features of various kinds play an important role. The first three parts of the volume explore the different domains of the clause, namely the C-domain, the T-domain and the ?P/VP-domain respectively, while chapters in the final part are concerned with establishing methodology in diachronic syntax and modelling linguistic correspondences. The contributors draw on extensive data from a large number of languages and dialects, including several that have received little attention in the literature on diachronic syntax, such as Romeyka, a Greek variety spoken in Turkey, and Middle Low German, previously spoken in northern Germany. Other languages are explored from a fresh theoretical perspective, including Hungarian, Icelandic, and Austronesian languages. The volume sheds light not only on specific syntactic changes from a cross-linguistic perspective but also on broader issues in language change and linguistic theory.

Author : Gert Webelhuth
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 254 pages
File Size : 41,7 Mb
Release : 1992
Category : Foreign Language Study
ISBN : 9780195361384

Get Book

Principles and Parameters of Syntactic Saturation by Gert Webelhuth Pdf

This work represents the first full-scale attempt to provide a restrictive theory of parameters--the nature and limits of syntactic variation. Focusing on syntactic saturation, Webelhuth hypothesizes that in natural language these phenomena are subject to the "Saturation Condition." He explains the principles behind this condition and demonstrates how it imposes strong constraints on what counts as a possible parameter in natural language. Webelhuth goes on to test this theory against empirical evidence from seven modern Germanic languages: German, Dutch, English, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, and Icelandic.

Author : Jóhannes Gísli Jónsson,Thórhallur Eythórsson
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
Page : 435 pages
File Size : 55,7 Mb
Release : 2021-03
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9780198832584

Get Book

Syntactic Features and the Limits of Syntactic Change by Jóhannes Gísli Jónsson,Thórhallur Eythórsson Pdf

This volume brings together the latest diachronic research on syntactic features and their role in restricting syntactic change. The chapters explore topics relating to all three domains of the clause as well as issues in methodology and modelling, drawing on data from a range of languages and dialects.

Author : Raffaella Zanuttini,Laurence R. Horn
Publisher : Oxford Studies in Comparative
Page : 377 pages
File Size : 43,6 Mb
Release : 2014
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9780199367214

Get Book

Micro-syntactic Variation in North American English by Raffaella Zanuttini,Laurence R. Horn Pdf

Comparative work on linguistic varieties that are overall very similar can help us determine where and how exactly grammatical systems differ from one another, and how they change over time. This book explores a range of data on unfamiliar constructions across regional and social dialects.

Author : Heidrun Dorgeloh,Anja Wanner
Publisher : Walter de Gruyter
Page : 373 pages
File Size : 48,5 Mb
Release : 2010
Category : Computers
ISBN : 9783110226478

Get Book

Syntactic Variation and Genre by Heidrun Dorgeloh,Anja Wanner Pdf

Review text: "Without a doubt, the volume in its entirety is inspiring. ... The articles are all written in an accessible style, so that the publication is suitable not only for experts, but also for students of linguistics. It is recommendable to all who want to broaden their horizons and embark on linguistic studies at the borders of traditional sub-disciplines."Sixta Quassdorf in: Linguist List 22.3028.

Author : Federica Cognola
Publisher : John Benjamins Publishing
Page : 338 pages
File Size : 41,9 Mb
Release : 2013-01-01
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9789027255846

Get Book

Syntactic Variation and Verb Second by Federica Cognola Pdf

This monograph investigates the syntax of the finite verb in Máocheno, a minority language spoken in a German speech island of Northern Italy. Basing her study on detailed new data collected during extensive fieldwork, and focusing on finite verb movement; on multiple access to the left periphery; on pro licensing mechanism and on the distribution of OV/VO word orders, the author refutes the traditional view that the syntactic variation found in Máocheno is due to the presence of two competing grammars as a consequence of contact with Romance varieties and accounts for the peculiarities of Máocheno syntax within a theory couched in the framework of Generative Grammar. This book contributes to our understanding of the verb-second phenomenon and sheds new light on the asymmetries between Old Romance and Germanic verb-second languages. A useful tool for all linguists working on both theoretical and comparative syntax and to anyone interested in language variation, dialectology and typology.

Author : Ludovic De Cuypere,Clara Vanderschueren,Gert De Sutter
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 327 pages
File Size : 50,8 Mb
Release : 2018-04-23
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 9027228183

Get Book

Current Trends in Analyzing Syntactic Variation by Ludovic De Cuypere,Clara Vanderschueren,Gert De Sutter Pdf

Author : Heidrun Dorgeloh,Anja Wanner
Publisher : Walter de Gruyter
Page : 373 pages
File Size : 47,6 Mb
Release : 2010-12-20
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9783110226485

Get Book

Syntactic Variation and Genre by Heidrun Dorgeloh,Anja Wanner Pdf

This volume explores the interplay of syntactic variation and genre. How do genres emerge and what is the role of syntax in constituting them? Why do certain constructions appear in certain types of text? The book takes the concept of genre as a reference-point for the description and analysis of morpho-syntactic variation and change. It includes both overviews of theoretical approaches to the concept of genre and text type in linguistics and studies of specific syntactic phenomena in English, German, and selected Romance languages. Contributions to the volume make use of insights from attempts for text classification and rhetorical views on genre and reach from quantitative, corpus-based methodology to qualitative, text-based analyses. The types of texts investigated cover spoken, highly interactive, and written forms of communication, including selected genres of computer-mediated communication. Corpus data come from both synchronic and diachronic linguistic corpora, such as LOB, Brown, FLOB, Frown, ARCHER, and ICE-Jamaica. This spectrum both in approaches and data is meant to provide a theoretical foundation as well as a realistic view of the inherent complexity of form-function relationships in syntax. At the same time, genre is treated as a category relevant beyond discourse studies, consisting of forms and conventions at all levels of linguistic analysis, including syntax. The book is therefore of interest to linguists and graduate students in the area of syntax, discourse analysis, and pragmatics, as well as to sociolinguists and corpus linguists working on register variation.

Author : James R. Black,Virginia Motapanyane
Publisher : John Benjamins Publishing
Page : 289 pages
File Size : 53,7 Mb
Release : 1996-11-07
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9789027276223

Get Book

Microparametric Syntax and Dialect Variation by James R. Black,Virginia Motapanyane Pdf

Richard Kayne’s introduction to this volume stresses that comparative work on the syntax of very closely related languages and dialects is a research tool promising to provide both a broad understanding of parameters at their finest-grained and an approach to the question of the minimal units of syntactic variation. The 11 articles in this collection demonstrate the use of this tool in analyzing microparametric variation, principally with reference to Chomsky’s Minimalist program, in a variety of languages. Topics include se/si constructions, hypothetical infinitives and adverbial quantifiers in French and other Romance languages; that-trace variation, Scandinavian possessive constructions, reflexives and subject-verb agreement in Icelandic & Faroese, and verb clusters in continental West Germanic dialects; anaphoric agreement in Labrador Inuttut; negative particle questions in Chinese; imperative inversion in Belfast English; and the second person singular interrogative in the traditional vernacular of Bolton.

Author : Marcel den Dikken
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 128 pages
File Size : 41,8 Mb
Release : 2013-07-25
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9781107354586

Get Book

The Cambridge Handbook of Generative Syntax by Marcel den Dikken Pdf

Syntax – the study of sentence structure – has been at the centre of generative linguistics from its inception and has developed rapidly and in various directions. The Cambridge Handbook of Generative Syntax provides a historical context for what is happening in the field of generative syntax today, a survey of the various generative approaches to syntactic structure available in the literature and an overview of the state of the art in the principal modules of the theory and the interfaces with semantics, phonology, information structure and sentence processing, as well as linguistic variation and language acquisition. This indispensable resource for advanced students, professional linguists (generative and non-generative alike) and scholars in related fields of inquiry presents a comprehensive survey of the field of generative syntactic research in all its variety, written by leading experts and providing a proper sense of the range of syntactic theories calling themselves generative.

Author : Raffaella Zanuttini,Laurence Horn
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 304 pages
File Size : 42,8 Mb
Release : 2014-06-11
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9780199367238

Get Book

Micro-Syntactic Variation in North American English by Raffaella Zanuttini,Laurence Horn Pdf

By comparing linguistic varieties that are quite similar overall, linguists can often determine where and how grammatical systems differ, and how they change over time. Micro-Syntactic Variation in North American English provides a systematic look at minimal differences in the syntax of varieties of English spoken in North America. The book makes available for the first time a range of data on unfamiliar constructions drawn from several regional and social dialects, data whose distribution and grammatical properties shed light on the varieties under examination and on the properties of English syntax more generally. The nine contributions collected in this volume fall under a number of overlapping topics: variation in the expression of negation and modality (the "so don't I" construction in eastern New England, negative auxiliary inversion in declaratives in African-American and southern white English, multiple modals in southern speech, the "needs washed" construction in the Pittsburgh area); pronouns and reflexives (transitive expletives in Appalachia, personal dative constructions in the Southern/Mountain states, long-distance reflexives in the Minnesota Iron Range); and the relation between linguistic variation and language change (the rise of "drama SO" among younger speakers, the difficulty in establishing which phenomena cluster together and should be explained by a single point of parametric variation). These chapters delve into the syntactic analysis of individual phenomena, and the editors' introduction and afterword contextualize the issues and explore their semantic, pragmatic, and sociolinguistic implications.

Author : Alba Cerrudo,Ángel J. Gallego,Francesc Roca Urgell
Publisher : John Benjamins Publishing Company
Page : 393 pages
File Size : 46,8 Mb
Release : 2021-11-15
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9789027259875

Get Book

Syntactic Geolectal Variation by Alba Cerrudo,Ángel J. Gallego,Francesc Roca Urgell Pdf

This volume brings together studies that combine both traditional and contemporary tools in the study of syntactic geolectal variation, with a special focus on a subset of Iberian varieties. There is an increasing body of research on syntactic micro-variation, but the interaction between dialectology (which makes use of atlases, corpora, databases, questionnaires, interviews, etc.) and formal syntactic studies has traditionally been weak (or even nonexistent), which is precisely the gap the contributions in this book aim at filling in. From a broader perspective, this collection is meant as a contribution to the subfield of linguistic variation and to the more general field of Romance linguistics, with special interest in Spanish and in other Iberian languages. The volume is meant for both researchers and students interested in linguistic variation or dialectology and, specifically, in syntactic variation in Iberian languages.

Author : Ian Roberts
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 558 pages
File Size : 50,9 Mb
Release : 2018-09-03
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 9781315310565

Get Book

Diachronic and Comparative Syntax by Ian Roberts Pdf

This book brings together for the first time a series of previously published papers featuring Ian Roberts’ pioneering work on diachronic and comparative syntax over the last thirty years in one comprehensive volume. Divided into two parts, the volume engages in recent key topics in empirical studies of syntactic theory, with the eight papers on diachronic syntax addressing major changes in the history of English as well as broader aspects of syntactic change, including the introduction to the formal approach to grammaticalisation, and the eight papers on comparative syntax exploring head-movement, the nature and distribution of clitics, and the nature of parametric variation and change. This comprehensive collection of the author’s body of research on diachronic and comparative syntax is an essential resource for scholars and researchers in theoretical, comparative, and historical linguistics.

Author : Maria Estling Vannestål
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 244 pages
File Size : 41,7 Mb
Release : 2004
Category : English language
ISBN : STANFORD:36105114725323

Get Book

Syntactic Variation in English Quantified Noun Phrases with All, Whole, Both and Half by Maria Estling Vannestål Pdf