Parameters of Morphosyntactic Change

This 1997 volume of essays addresses the issues of syntactic and morphological change.

Ans van Kemenade (Edited by), Nigel Vincent (Edited by)

9780521584029, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 1 May 1997

558 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 3 cm, 0.91 kg

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 1997 volume address the issue of how to model the phenomena of syntactic and morphological change within recent frameworks, in particular the Minimalist Program. A special concern is the way different criteria for the selection of argument structure - especially aspect and mood - interact over time with various types of argument marking: case, word order, clitics, agreement. The volume contains papers by many of the leading scholars in the field. There is a substantial introduction which reviews the development of ideas in generative historical syntax, and assesses the distinctive properties of the generative position.

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.

Subject Areas: Historical & comparative linguistics [CFF]