Parameters of Morphosyntactic Change

by Ans van Kemenade, Nigel Vincent

Overview

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, including the Minimalist Programme. Topics addressed include the way categories like aspect and mood interact over time with the valency of verbs; the nature of changes in verb placement; the changing division of labor between different types of argument marking—case, word order, clitics, agreement. The volume contains chapters 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. The volume will appeal to those working in theoretical syntax, and also to specialists in the history of German, French and the Romance and Germanic languages more broadly.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521586436
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	05/01/1997
Pages:	558
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 1.14(d)

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 Hirschbühler; 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 Höskuldur Thrainsson; References; Index.