Diachronic Syntax

by Ian Roberts

Overview

This second edition of Ian Roberts's highly successful textbook on diachronic syntax has been fully revised and updated throughout to take account of the multiple developments in the field in the last decade. The book provides a detailed account of how standard questions in historical linguistics - including word order change, grammaticalization, and reanalysis - can be explored in terms of current minimalist theory and Universal Grammar. This new edition offers expanded coverage of a range of topics, including null subjects, the Final-over-Final Condition, the diachrony of wh-movement, the Tolerance Principle, and creoles and creolization, and explores further advances in the theory of parametric variation. Each chapter includes suggestions for further reading, and the book concludes with a comprehensive glossary of key terms. Written by one of the leading scholars in the field, the volume will remain an ideal textbook for students of historical linguistics and a valuable reference for researchers and students in related areas such as syntax, comparative linguistics, language contact, and language acquisition.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199253982
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	03/01/2007
Series:	Oxford Textbooks in Linguistics
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	528
Product dimensions:	9.50(w) x 6.70(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Ian Roberts, Professor of Linguistics, University of Cambridge

Ian Roberts is Professor of Linguistics at the University of Cambridge, having previously held positions in Geneva, Bangor, and Stuttgart. He has worked extensively on comparative and historical syntax within the framework of Universal Grammar, with a particular focus on the Germanic, Romance, and Celtic languages. His many books include Agreement and Head Movement (MIT Press 2010), The Wonders of Language, or How to Make Noises and Influence People (CUP 2017), and Parameter Hierarchies and Universal Grammar (OUP 2019; paperback 2021). He is the editor of The Oxford Handbook of Universal Grammar (OUP 2016; paperback 2018).

Table of Contents

Introduction1. Formal comparative and historical syntax2. Types of syntactic change? 3. Acquisition, learnability, and syntactic change4. The dynamics of syntactic change5. Contact, creoles, and changeEpilogueGlossaryReferencesIndex