Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

Linguistic Cycles are ever present in language change and involve a phrase or word that gradually disappears and is replaced by a new linguistic item. The most well-known cycles involve negatives, where an initial single negative, such as not, is reinforced by another negative, such as no thing, and subjects, where full pronouns are reanalyzed as endings on the verb. This book presents new data and insights on the well-known cyclical changes as well as on less well-known ones, such as the preposition, auxiliary, copula, modal, and complementation cycles. Part I covers the negative cycle with chapters looking in great detail at the steps that are typical in this cycle. Part II focuses on pronouns, auxiliaries, and the left periphery. Part III includes work on modals, prepositions, and complementation. The book ends with a psycholinguistic chapter. This book brings together linguists from a variety of theoretical frameworks and contributes to new directions in work on language change.

Grammar --- Grammar, Comparative and general --- Linguistic change. --- Syntax. --- 801.5 --- Grammatica --- 801.5 Grammatica --- Linguistic change --- Change, Linguistic --- Language change --- Historical linguistics --- Language and languages --- Syntax --- Linguistics --- Philology --- Grammar, Comparative and general Syntax

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

This book provides much detail on the changes involving the grammaticalization of personal and relative pronouns, topicalized nominals, complementizers, adverbs, prepositions, modals, perception verbs, and aspectual markers. It accounts for these changes in terms of two structural economy principles. Head Preference expresses that single words, i.e. heads, are used to build structures rather than full phrases, and Late Merge states that waiting as late as possible to merge, i.e. be added to the structure, is preferred over movement. The book also discusses grammar-external processes (e.g. prescriptivist rules) that inhibit change, and innovations that replenish the grammaticalized element. Most of the changes involve the (extended) CP and IP: as elements grammaticalize clause boundaries disappear. Cross-linguistic differences exist as to whether the CP, IP, and VP are all present and split and this is formulated as the Layer Principle. Changes involving the CP are typically brought about by Head Preference, whereas those involving the IP and VP by Late Merge.

Grammar --- LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES --- Linguistics / General --- Grammar, Comparative and general --- Economy (Linguistics) --- Linguistic change --- Languages & Literatures --- Philology & Linguistics --- Linguistics --- Philology --- Historical linguistics --- Language and languages --- Efficiency (Linguistics) --- Linguistic economy --- Linguistic analysis (Linguistics) --- Grammaticalization --- Linguistic change. --- Grammaticalization.

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

This exceptionally clear text focuses on internal changes in the English language. It outlines the history of English from pre-Old English times to the present. Not only does it present the traditional morphological descriptions of the various stages of the language, it provides many example sentences, texts, and cartoons that are analyzed for the benefit of the student and which make this book ideal for class use. Some language-external topics are covered such as early printing and authorship debates. Tables and figures complement the material covered and exercises review the main points as well as ask further, more challenging, questions. Answers to the exercises are provided, as is a time line listing some of the external events, and some guidance on how to use the OED. Complementary web site information is provided throughout the book, and a companion web site accompanies the book.

English language --- History --- Historical linguistics --- 802.0-02 --- 802.0 --- 802.0 Engels. Engelse taalkunde --- Engels. Engelse taalkunde --- 802.0-02 Engels. Engelse taalkunde--?-02 --- Engels. Engelse taalkunde--?-02 --- Germanic languages --- History. --- English language - History --- English language - History - Problems, exercises, etc. --- ANGLAIS (LANGUE) --- HISTOIRE --- PROBLEMES, EXERCICES, ETC

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

This book brings together a number of seemingly distinct phenomena in the history of English: the introduction of special reflexive pronouns (e.g. myself), the loss of verbal agreement and pro-drop, and the disappearance of morphological Case. It provides vast numbers of examples from Old and Middle English texts showing a person split between first, second, and third person pronouns. Extending an analysis by Reinhart & Reuland, the author argues that the 'strength' of certain pronominal features (Case, person, number) differs cross-linguistically and that parametric variation accounts for the changes in English. The framework used is Minimalist, and Interpretable and Uninterpretable features are seen as the key to explaining the change from a synthetic to an analytic language.

English language --- 802.0-02 --- 802.0-56 --- 802.0-02 Engels. Engelse taalkunde--?-02 --- Engels. Engelse taalkunde--?-02 --- Grammar, Historical --- Pronoun --- Reflexives --- Engels: syntaxis; semantiek --- Reciprocals --- Relative pronoun --- Nominals --- 802.0-56 Engels: syntaxis; semantiek --- Grammar, Historical. --- Pronoun. --- Reflexives. --- Germanic languages --- ANGLAIS (LANGUE) --- HISTOIRE

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

In this pioneering study, a world-renowned generative syntactician explores the impact of phenomena known as 'third factors' on syntactic change. Generative syntax has in recent times incorporated third factors - factors not specific to the language faculty - into its framework, including minimal search, labelling, determinacy and economy. Van Gelderen's study applies these principles to language change, arguing that change is a cyclical process, and that third factor principles must combine with linguistic information to fully account for the cyclical development of 'optimal' language structures. Third Factor Principles also account for language variation around that-trace phenomena, CP-deletion, and the presence of expletives and Verb-second. By linking insights from recent theoretical advances in generative syntax to phenomena from language variation and change, this book provides a unique perspective, making it essential reading for academic researchers and students in syntactic theory and historical linguistics.

Dialectology --- Grammar --- Language and languages --- Grammar, Comparative and general --- Linguistic change --- Historical linguistics --- Grammar, Comparative and general Syntax --- Syntax --- Characterology of speech --- Language diversity --- Language subsystems --- Language variation --- Linguistic diversity --- Variation in language --- Variation --- Linguistic change. --- Variation. --- Syntax.