Grammatical Change and Linguistic Theory

Grammatical Change and Linguistic Theory PDF Author: Þórhallur Eyþórsson
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9789027233776
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 456

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Book Description
This book contains 15 revised papers originally presented at a symposium at Rosendal, Norway, under the aegis of The Centre for Advanced Study (CAS) at the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. The overall theme of the volume is 'internal factors in grammatical change.' The papers focus on fundamental questions in theoretically-based historical linguistics from a broad perspective. Several of the papers relate to grammaticalization in different ways, but are generally critical of 'Grammaticalization Theory'. Further papers focus on the causes of syntactic change, pinpointing both extra-syntactic (exogenous) causes and – more controversially – internally driven (endogenous) causes. The volume is rounded up by contributions on morphological change 'by itself.' A wide range of languages is covered, including Tsova-Tush (Nakh-Dagestan), Zoque, and Athapaskan languages, in addition to Indo-European languages, both the more familiar ones and some less well-studied varieties.

Grammatical Change and Linguistic Theory

Grammatical Change and Linguistic Theory PDF Author: Þórhallur Eyþórsson
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9789027233776
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 456

Get Book

Book Description
This book contains 15 revised papers originally presented at a symposium at Rosendal, Norway, under the aegis of The Centre for Advanced Study (CAS) at the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. The overall theme of the volume is 'internal factors in grammatical change.' The papers focus on fundamental questions in theoretically-based historical linguistics from a broad perspective. Several of the papers relate to grammaticalization in different ways, but are generally critical of 'Grammaticalization Theory'. Further papers focus on the causes of syntactic change, pinpointing both extra-syntactic (exogenous) causes and – more controversially – internally driven (endogenous) causes. The volume is rounded up by contributions on morphological change 'by itself.' A wide range of languages is covered, including Tsova-Tush (Nakh-Dagestan), Zoque, and Athapaskan languages, in addition to Indo-European languages, both the more familiar ones and some less well-studied varieties.

Grammatical Change in Indo-European Languages

Grammatical Change in Indo-European Languages PDF Author: Vit Bubenik
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027289298
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 262

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Book Description
The product of a group of scholars who have been working on new directions in Historical Linguistics, this book is focused on questions of grammatical change, and the central issue of grammaticalization in Indo-European languages. Several studies examine particular problems in specific languages, but often with implications for the IE phylum as a whole. Given the historical scope of the data (over a period of four millennia) long range grammatical changes such as the development of gender differences, strategies of definiteness, the prepositional phrase, or of the syntax of the verbal diathesis and aspect, are also treated. The shifting relevance of morphology to syntax, and syntax to morphology, a central motif of this research, has provoked lively debate in the discipline of Historical Linguistics.

Grammatical Change and Linguistic Theory

Grammatical Change and Linguistic Theory PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Grammar, Comparative and general
Languages : en
Pages : 441

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Book Description


The Paradox of Grammatical Change

The Paradox of Grammatical Change PDF Author: Ulrich Detges
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027291632
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 252

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Book Description
Recent years have seen intense debates between formal (generative) and functional linguists, particularly with respect to the relation between grammar and usage. This debate is directly relevant to diachronic linguistics, where one and the same phenomenon of language change can be explained from various theoretical perspectives. In this, a close look at the divergent and/or convergent evolution of a richly documented language family such as Romance promises to be useful. The basic problem for any approach to language change is what Eugenio Coseriu has termed the paradox of change: if synchronically, languages can be viewed as perfectly running systems, then there is no reason why they should change in the first place. And yet, as everyone knows, languages are changing constantly. In nine case studies, a number of renowned scholars of Romance linguistics address the explanation of grammatical change either within a broadly generative or a functional framework.

Language Change and Linguistic Theory

Language Change and Linguistic Theory PDF Author: D. Gary Miller
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 456

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Book Description
This v. 1 book investigates a large range of changes and their motivations in all parts of the grammar and lexicon. The core argument is that, in the absence of a Grand Unification Theory in linguistics, a natural language changes. Changes occur in successive formal grammars.

Parameter Theory and Linguistic Change

Parameter Theory and Linguistic Change PDF Author: Sonia Cyrino
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199659206
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 405

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Book Description
Leading scholars examine languages ranging from old Egyptian to modern Afrikaans. They consider the insights parametric theory offers to understanding the dynamics of language change and test new hypotheses against an extensive array of data. In both the broad range of languages it discusses and its use of linguistic theory this is an outstanding book.

Linguistic Change and Generative Theory

Linguistic Change and Generative Theory PDF Author: Robert P. Stockwell
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 328

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Book Description


Grammatical Change

Grammatical Change PDF Author: Dianne Jonas
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199582629
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 397

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Book Description
This book advances research on grammatical change and shows the breadth and liveliness of the field. International scholars report on the nature and outcomes of all aspects of syntactic change, including grammaticalization, variation, syntactic movement, determiner-phrase syntax, pronominal systems, case systems, negation, and alignment.

Explanation and Linguistic Change

Explanation and Linguistic Change PDF Author: Willem F. Koopman
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027235392
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 309

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Book Description
This volume presents the outcome of a workshop, held in Amsterdam in 1985, on the nature, even possibility, of explanation in Historical Linguistics: why changes take place and others do not, and why they occur at a particular time and place. The workshop, and this volume, aim to explore questions such as i) are the factors which explain the actuation of a change different from those that explain its implementation?; ii) is it possible to give a typology of changes?; iii) should linguistic explanation hope to meet the same requirements as explanation in the pure sciences?; iv) are all linguistic changes necessarily the product of variation?; v) should there be a formal theory of change apart from a general thoery of grammar?

Competing Models of Linguistic Change

Competing Models of Linguistic Change PDF Author: Ole Nedergaard Thomsen
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027247943
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description
The articles of this volume are centered around two competing views on language change originally presented at the 2003 International Conference on Historical Linguistics in the two important plenary papers by Henning Andersen and William Croft. The latter proposes an evolutionary model of language change within a domain-neutral model of a 'generalized analysis of selection', whereas Henning Andersen takes it that cultural phenomena could not possibly be handled, i.e. observed, described, understood, in the same way as natural phenomena. These papers are models of succinct presentation of important theoretical framework. The other papers present and discuss additional models of change, e.g. invisible hand-processes, system-internal models, functional and cognitive models. Most papers do not subscribe to the evolutionary model; instead, they focus on functional factors in the selection and propagation of variants (as opposed to factors of code efficiency), or on cognitive and pragmatic perspectives. Several papers are inspired by the late Eugenio Coseriu and by Henning Andersen's theories on language change. In particular, the volume contains articles proposing interesting grammaticalization studies and extended models of grammaticalization. The clear presentation of important and competing approaches to fundamental questions concerning language change will be of high interest for scholars and students working in the field of diachrony and typology. The languages referred to in the papers include Cantonese, the Chukotko-Kamchatkan languages, Danish, English, Eskimo languages, German, Norwegian, Russian, Spanish, and Swedish.