Continuity and Change in Grammar

Continuity and Change in Grammar PDF

Author: Anne Breitbarth

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 369

ISBN-13: 9027255423

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

One of the principal challenges of historical linguistics is to explain the "causes" of language change. Any such explanation, however, must also address the actuation problem: why is it that changes occurring in a given language at a certain time cannot be reliably predicted to recur in other languages, under apparently similar conditions? The sixteen contributions to the present volume each aim to elucidate various aspects of this problem, including: What processes can be identified as the drivers of change? How central are syntax-external (phonological, lexical or contact-based) factors in triggering syntactic change? And how can all of these factors be reconciled with the actuation problem? Exploring data from a wide range of languages from both a formal and a functional perspective, this book promises to be of interest to advanced students and researchers in historical linguistics, syntax and their intersection."

Theoretical Issues in Language Acquisition

Theoretical Issues in Language Acquisition PDF

Author: Juergen Weissenborn

Publisher: Psychology Press

Published: 2013-02-01

Total Pages: 334

ISBN-13: 1134746695

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

In recent linguistic theory, there has been an explosion of detailed studies of language variation. This volume applies such recent analyses to the study of child language, developing new approaches to change and variation in child grammars and revealing both early knowledge in several areas of grammar and a period of extended development in others. Topics dealt with include question formation, "subjectless" sentences, object gaps, rules for missing subject interpretation, passive sentences, rules for pronoun interpretation and argument structure. Leading developmental linguists and psycholinguists show how linguistic theory can help define and inform a theory of the dynamics of language development and its biological basis, meeting the growing need for such studies in programs in linguistics, psychology, and cognitive science.

Change and Continuity in the English Language

Change and Continuity in the English Language PDF

Author: Martti Juhani Rudanko

Publisher: University Press of America

Published: 1998

Total Pages: 200

ISBN-13: 9780761810391

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

While earlier treatments of English verb syntax from a diachronic perspective exist, this book breaks entirely fresh ground with its focus on the detailed study of English predicate complementation over the past three centuries. It draws data from an unprecedented combination of authoritative sources, including computer corpora and H. Poutsma's unpublished dictionary, and offers novel systematizations of predicates and discussions of alternation. By giving ample evidence of both change and continuity in the language over the past three hundred years, the book opens up a new research field in the study of the English language.

Bilingualism in the Community

Bilingualism in the Community PDF

Author: Rena Torres Cacoullos

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2018-03-08

Total Pages: 257

ISBN-13: 1108415822

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

Analysis of bilinguals' use of two languages reveals highly adept code-switching: alternating between languages while keeping intact the separate grammars.

Grammatical Relations in Change

Grammatical Relations in Change PDF

Author: Jan Terje Faarlund

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing

Published: 2001-01-01

Total Pages: 346

ISBN-13: 9789027230584

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

The eleven selected contributions making up this volume deal with grammatical relations, their coding and behavioral properties, and the change that these properties have undergone in different languages. The focus of this collection is on the changing properties of subjects and objects, although the scope of the volume goes beyond the central problems pertaining to case marking and word order. The diachrony of syntactic and morphosyntactic phenomena are approached from different theoretical perspectives, generative grammar, valency grammar, and functionalism. The languages dealt with include Old English, Mainland Scandinavian, Icelandic, German and other Germanic languages, Latin, French and other Romance languages, Northeast Caucasian, Eskimo, and Popolocan. This book provides an opportunity to compare different theoretical approaches to similar phenomena in different languages and language families.

Language Structure, Variation and Change

Language Structure, Variation and Change PDF

Author: Ian E. Mackenzie

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2019-03-09

Total Pages: 291

ISBN-13: 3030105679

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

This book offers an original account of the dynamics of syntactic change and the evolving structure of Old Spanish that combines rigorous manuscript-based investigation, quantitative analysis and a syntactic approach grounded in Minimalist thinking. Its analysis of both successful and failed changes demonstrates the degree of unpredictability caused by the interaction of competing factors and will shed fresh light on the assumed unidirectionality of linguistic change. Importantly, it reveals that Old Spanish and modern Spanish are more similar to one another than is usually supposed and demonstrates that many of the differences between the two varieties are quantitative rather than qualitative. This theoretically sophisticated examination of historical corpora will provide an invaluable resource for students and scholars of Old and modern Spanish, historical linguistics, sociolinguistics and syntax.

Continuities and Changes in Maya Archaeology

Continuities and Changes in Maya Archaeology PDF

Author: Charles Golden

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2004-03

Total Pages: 297

ISBN-13: 1135946078

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

This book presents the current state of Maya archaeology by focusing on the history of the field for the last 100 years, present day research, and forward looking prescription for the direction of the field.

Language Loyalty, Continuity and Change

Language Loyalty, Continuity and Change PDF

Author: Rakhmiel Peltz

Publisher: Multilingual Matters

Published: 2006-01-01

Total Pages: 193

ISBN-13: 1853599026

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

This short volume provides a comprehensive and synoptic view of Joshua A. Fishman's contributions to international sociolinguistics. The two integrative essays provide readers with the essential understandings of Fishmanian sociolinguistics and his contributions to Yiddish scholarship. An up-to-date comprehensive bibliography prepared by Gella Schweid Fishman, as well as Fishman's own concluding sentiments, complement the integrative essays.

Quantitative Approaches to Grammar and Grammatical Change

Quantitative Approaches to Grammar and Grammatical Change PDF

Author: Sam Featherston

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2016-07-25

Total Pages: 238

ISBN-13: 3110402122

DOWNLOAD EBOOK →

The newly-emerging field of theoretically informed but simultaneously empirically based syntax is dynamic but little-represented in the literature. This volume addresses this need. While there has previously been something of a gulf between theoretical linguists in the generative tradition and those linguists who work with quantitative data types, this gap is narrowing. In the light of the empirical revolution in the study of syntax, even people whose primary concern is grammatical theory take note of processing effects and attribute certain effects to them. Correspondingly, workers focusing on the surface evidence can relate more to the concepts of the theoreticians, because the two layers of explanation have been brought into contact. And these workers too must account for the data gathered by the theoreticians. An additional innovation is the generative analysis of historical data – this is now seen as psycholinguistic theory-relevant data like any other. These papers are thus a snapshot of some of the work currently being done in evidence-based grammar, using both experimental and historical data.

Lanterna Rally - Theme by Grace Themes