Parameters of Morphosyntactic Change

by Edited by Ans van Kemenade , Nigel Vincent

• ISBN13: 9780521586436
• ISBN10: 0521586437
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1997-05-13
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

The relationship between changes in (inflectional) morphology and the consequences of these changes in syntax has been a perennial issue in historical linguistics. The contributors to this volume address the issue of how to model the phenomena of syntactic and morphological change within recent frameworks, in particular the Minimalist Program. A special concern is the way different criteria for the selection of argument structure - especially aspect and mood - interact over time with various types of argument marking: case, word order, clitics, agreement. The volume contains papers by many of the leading scholars in the field. There is a substantial introduction which reviews the development of ideas in generative historical syntax over the last fifteen years, and assesses the distinctive properties of the generative position.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Parameters and morphosyntactic change Ans van Kemenade and Nigel Vincent

Part I. Aspect, argument structure and case selection: 1. The interdependence of case, aspect and referentiality in the history of German Werner Abraham

2. The rise of the article in the Germanic languages Julia Philippi

3. The diachronic development of a modal verb of necessity Paola BenincÀ

and Cecilia Poletto

4. Auxiliary verbs in Old and Middle French Philip H. Miller

5. Commentary on part I: aspect, argument structure and case selection Alessandra Tomaselli

Part II. Clitics: 6. The emergence of the D-system in Romance Nigel Vincent

7. On two locations for complement clitic pronouns Maria Luisa Rivero

8. On the integration of second position phenomena Josep M. Fontana

Part III. Verb second and comp: 9. Shifting triggers and diachronic reanalyses David Lightfoot

10. Viewing change in progress Alison Henry

11. Verb movement in Old and Middle English Anthony Kroch and Ann Taylor

12. V2 and embedded topicalization in Old and Middle English Ans van Kemenade

13. Qu'est-ce que ce que: the diachronic evolution of a French complementizer Laurie Zaring and Paul Hirschbü

ler

14. The structure of parametric change, and V-movement in the history of English Anthony Warner

Part IV. Scrambling and morphological change: 15. Directionality and word order change in the history of English Ian Roberts

16. On the relation between morphological and syntactic case Fred Weerman

17. The rise of positional licensing Paul Kiparsky

The papers by Kiparsky, Roberts and Weerman: an epilogue Hö

kuldur Thrainsson

References