A Brief History of English Syntax

An accessible, up-to-date account of the major changes in English syntax since its beginnings up to the present day.

Olga Fischer (Author), Hendrik De Smet (Author), Wim van der Wurff (Author)

9780521747974, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 27 May 2017

246 pages, 10 tables
22.7 x 15.2 x 1.4 cm, 0.37 kg

'A data-rich fresh look at the history of English, its NP, VP and clausal structure, with an eye for the role of language contact.' Elly Van Gelderen, Arizona State University

In its 1500-year history, the English language has seen dramatic grammatical changes. This book offers a comprehensive and reader-friendly account of the major developments, including changes in word order, the noun phrase and verb phrase, changing relations between clausal constituents and the development of new subordinate constructions. The book puts forward possible explanations for change, drawing on the existing and most recent literature, and with reference to the major theoretical models. The authors use corpus evidence to investigate language-internal and language-external motivations for change, including the impact of language contact. The book is intended for students who have been introduced to the history of English and want to deepen their understanding of major grammatical changes, and for linguists in general with a historical interest. It will also be of value to literary scholars professionally engaged with older texts.

1. Introduction
2. Data and data handling
3. Theoretical models and morpho-syntactic change
4. The role of contact in syntactic change in English
5. The noun phrase
6. The verb phrase
7. Clausal constituents
8. Subordinate clauses
9. Word order
10. References
Index.

Subject Areas: Grammar, syntax & morphology [CFK], Phonetics, phonology [CFH], Historical & comparative linguistics [CFF], Language: history & general works [CBX]