John Whitman, Dianne Jonas, and Andrew Garrett
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199582624
- eISBN:
- 9780191731068
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199582624.003.0001
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Historical Linguistics, Syntax and Morphology
As research on syntactic change within a broadly generative framework enters its fifth decade, it is possible to look back at the development and accomplishments of this enterprise. Three ...
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As research on syntactic change within a broadly generative framework enters its fifth decade, it is possible to look back at the development and accomplishments of this enterprise. Three publications which appeared in the late 1970s serve as a useful demarcation of its beginning: the collection of papers in Li (1977), David Lightfoot's (1979) book, and Lightfoot's (1979) review of the Li volume. The three features that Lightfoot criticizes are the absence of a careful formal description of the synchronic stages referenced in the diachronic analysis, reliance on assumptions about reconstructed stages of a language, and a focus on independent diachronic principles and constraints on ‘diachronic processes’. The methodology of diachronic generative syntax as it has developed over the past four decades is closely based on Lightfoot's injunctions. Some theoretical assumptions change, but the methodology has remained remarkably consistent. Thus, while the chapters in this volume represent a broad theoretical range within the general rubric of a formal approach to language changes, their methodology hews largely to the basic scheme, which are outlined in this introductory chapter. An overview of the subsequent chapters is also presented.Less
As research on syntactic change within a broadly generative framework enters its fifth decade, it is possible to look back at the development and accomplishments of this enterprise. Three publications which appeared in the late 1970s serve as a useful demarcation of its beginning: the collection of papers in Li (1977), David Lightfoot's (1979) book, and Lightfoot's (1979) review of the Li volume. The three features that Lightfoot criticizes are the absence of a careful formal description of the synchronic stages referenced in the diachronic analysis, reliance on assumptions about reconstructed stages of a language, and a focus on independent diachronic principles and constraints on ‘diachronic processes’. The methodology of diachronic generative syntax as it has developed over the past four decades is closely based on Lightfoot's injunctions. Some theoretical assumptions change, but the methodology has remained remarkably consistent. Thus, while the chapters in this volume represent a broad theoretical range within the general rubric of a formal approach to language changes, their methodology hews largely to the basic scheme, which are outlined in this introductory chapter. An overview of the subsequent chapters is also presented.
Ana Maria Martins and Adriana Cardoso
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- July 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198747307
- eISBN:
- 9780191809712
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198747307.003.0001
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Historical Linguistics, Syntax and Morphology
This introductory overview chapter focuses on the relation between movement operations and word order by assembling the pieces of information offered by the book’s authors. It shows how the essays ...
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This introductory overview chapter focuses on the relation between movement operations and word order by assembling the pieces of information offered by the book’s authors. It shows how the essays published in the book indicate, when considered together, that word order change is mainly the effect of the interaction between clause structure and syntactic movement, thus identifying these two components of grammar as the main factors behind word order variation. It also demonstrates that the study of word order change (set within the framework of diachronic generative syntax) is a means to test the descriptive adequacy and explanatory potential of competing analyses of word order phenomena not restricted to historical change, and identifies (theoretical and empirical) research issues that emerge from the type of approach to word order change envisaged in the book.Less
This introductory overview chapter focuses on the relation between movement operations and word order by assembling the pieces of information offered by the book’s authors. It shows how the essays published in the book indicate, when considered together, that word order change is mainly the effect of the interaction between clause structure and syntactic movement, thus identifying these two components of grammar as the main factors behind word order variation. It also demonstrates that the study of word order change (set within the framework of diachronic generative syntax) is a means to test the descriptive adequacy and explanatory potential of competing analyses of word order phenomena not restricted to historical change, and identifies (theoretical and empirical) research issues that emerge from the type of approach to word order change envisaged in the book.
Ana Maria Martins and Adriana Cardoso (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- July 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198747307
- eISBN:
- 9780191809712
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198747307.001.0001
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Historical Linguistics, Syntax and Morphology
This book is a collection of thirteen detailed studies on word order change within the framework of diachronic generative syntax. An initial chapter contextualizes them and introduces the theme in ...
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This book is a collection of thirteen detailed studies on word order change within the framework of diachronic generative syntax. An initial chapter contextualizes them and introduces the theme in order to make clear from the onset its relevance and appeal. The sample of languages investigated is diverse and displays significant historical depth. Different branches of the Indo-European family are represented both through classical and living languages, namely: a wide range of Early Indo-European languages (Sanskrit, Greek, Indic, Avestan, Hittite, Tocharian, among others), Romance languages (Latin, Italian, European Portuguese, Brazilian Portuguese), Germanic languages (Dutch, English), and a Celtic language (Irish). Besides, three chapters are dedicated to Hungarian and one chapter deals with Coptic Egyptian. The essays in the book use the tools provided by the generative theory of grammar to investigate the constrained ways in which older linguistic variants give rise to new ones in the course of time, with the aim of contributing insights into the properties of natural language. Two ingredients of the generative framework make it especially appropriate to deal with word order phenomena, namely movement as a syntactic operation (embedded in the theory of grammar) and a richly articulated clausal architecture composed with lexical but also abstract functional categories. This collective volume is unique in the way it provides through in-depth language-internal or comparative studies new perspectives on the relation between word order change and syntactic movement, under the constraints imposed by particular instantiations of clausal architecture.Less
This book is a collection of thirteen detailed studies on word order change within the framework of diachronic generative syntax. An initial chapter contextualizes them and introduces the theme in order to make clear from the onset its relevance and appeal. The sample of languages investigated is diverse and displays significant historical depth. Different branches of the Indo-European family are represented both through classical and living languages, namely: a wide range of Early Indo-European languages (Sanskrit, Greek, Indic, Avestan, Hittite, Tocharian, among others), Romance languages (Latin, Italian, European Portuguese, Brazilian Portuguese), Germanic languages (Dutch, English), and a Celtic language (Irish). Besides, three chapters are dedicated to Hungarian and one chapter deals with Coptic Egyptian. The essays in the book use the tools provided by the generative theory of grammar to investigate the constrained ways in which older linguistic variants give rise to new ones in the course of time, with the aim of contributing insights into the properties of natural language. Two ingredients of the generative framework make it especially appropriate to deal with word order phenomena, namely movement as a syntactic operation (embedded in the theory of grammar) and a richly articulated clausal architecture composed with lexical but also abstract functional categories. This collective volume is unique in the way it provides through in-depth language-internal or comparative studies new perspectives on the relation between word order change and syntactic movement, under the constraints imposed by particular instantiations of clausal architecture.
