Diachronic Syntax Models and Mechanisms

by Pintzuk, Susan; Tsoulas, George; Warner, Anthony

• ISBN13: 9780198250272
• ISBN10: 0198250274
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-04-12
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

This collection of new writing on grammatical change advances research in the field and shows its breadth and liveliness. The study of how and why syntax changes occupies a pivotal position in research into the nature, use, and acquisition of language. It is responsive to theoretical advancesin linguistic theory, language acquisition, and theories of language use as well as to less adjacent fields such as statistical techniques and evolutionary biology. Chomsky's Minimalist Programme and Kayne's theories of antisymmetry and overt movement have brought into sharper focus questionsconcerning the architecture of linguistic theory, and this has had a direct impact on the understanding of the processes of change. Optimality Theory has also begun to raise new questions as it is applied to syntax and historical change. The sociolinguistic causes and consequences of syntacticchange have also become newly prominent. These are among the many issues and themes discussed and explored by the authors. The book's fourteen chapters exemplify work in a wide range of languages, including Germanic (Icelandic and Swedish, as well as Old and Middle English); Romance (Latin, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish); Slavonic; and Chinese. A substantial introduction provides a critical synthesis of the field andsets the following chapters in context. The book is then divided into parts dealing with theoretical frameworks, comparative change, features and categories, and movement. The single collated bibliography to the entire volume is a valuable research tool in itself.Diachronic Syntax is innovative in both theory and method and makes a substantial contribution to its subject. It will be of interest to all those concerned to understand and explain the internal dynamics of language.

Author Biography

Susan Pintzuk is Lecturer in Linguistics in the Department of Language and Linguistic Science at the University of York. Her research interests include syntactic variation and change in the history of English; and quantitative modelling of syntactic change in Germanic. She is currently investigating, both quantitatively and qualitatively, the change in verb-complement word order in the history of English. She also collaborates with researchers in the USA, the Netherlands, and Switzerland on the syntactic annotation for the Old English section of the Helsinki corpus.
George Tsoulas is Lecturer in Linguistics and French in the Department of Language and Linguistic Science at the University of York. His research interests include syntactic theory (especially Minimalism); syntax/semantics interface; syntax of Greek and French; and philosophy of Language.
Anthony Warner is Senior Lecturer in Linguistics in the Department of Language and Linguistic Science at the University of Yo

Table of Contents

Notes on Contributors	ix
Syntactic Change: Theory and Method	1	(24)
Susan Pintzuk
George Tsoulas
Anthony Warner
PART I. FRAMEWORKS FOR THE UNDERSTANDING OF CHANGE
Competition and Correspondence in Syntactic Change: Null Arguments in Latin and Romance	25	(26)
Nigel Vincent
Jespersen's Cycle Revisited: Formal Properties of Grammaticalization	51	(24)
Ans van Kemenade
Evolutionary Perspectives on Diachronic Syntax	75	(34)
Ted Briscoe
PART II. THE COMPARATIVE BASIS OF DIACHRONIC SYNTAX
Adjuncts and the Syntax of Subjects in Old and Middle English	109	(23)
Eric Haeberli
Verb-Object Order in Early Middle English	132	(32)
Anthony Kroch
Ann Taylor
Null Subjects in Middle English Existentials	164	(27)
Alexander Williams
PART III. MECHANISMS OF SYNTACTIC CHANGE
1 Features and Categories
Polarity Items in Romance: Underspecification and Lexical Change	191	(29)
Ana Maria Martins
Relabelling	220	(21)
John Whitman
2 Movement
The Value of Definite Determiners from Old Spanish to Modern Spanish	241	(14)
Montse Batllori
Francesc Roca
From OV to VO in Swedish	255	(20)
Lars-Olof Delsing
The Evolution of Do-Support in English Imperatives	275	(21)
Chung-hye Han
Interacting Movements in the History of Icelandic	296	(26)
Porbjorg Hroarsdottir
Verb Movement in Slavonic Conditionals	322	(27)
David Willis
Old English and Middle English Sources	349	(4)
References	353	(24)
Index	377