The Cambridge Handbook of Historical Syntax

Written by a team of international scholars, this outstanding Handbook provides a complete overview of research into historical syntax.

Adam Ledgeway (Edited by), Ian Roberts (Edited by)

9781107049604, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 9 March 2017

746 pages, 21 b/w illus. 21 tables
25.5 x 18.3 x 3.8 cm, 1.61 kg

Change is an inherent feature of all aspects of language, and syntax is no exception. While the synchronic study of syntax allows us to make discoveries about the nature of syntactic structure, the study of historical syntax offers even greater possibilities. Over recent decades, the study of historical syntax has proven to be a powerful scientific tool of enquiry with which to challenge and reassess hypotheses and ideas about the nature of syntactic structure which go beyond the observed limits of the study of the synchronic syntax of individual languages or language families. In this timely Handbook, the editors bring together the best of recent international scholarship on historical syntax. Each chapter is focused on a theme rather than an individual language, allowing readers to discover how systematic descriptions of historical data can profitably inform and challenge highly diverse sets of theoretical assumptions.

Introduction Adam Ledgeway and Ian Roberts
Part I. Types and Mechanisms of Syntactic Change: 1. Grammaticalization Heiko Narrog and Bernd Heine
2. Degrammaticalization David Willis
3. Exaptation John Haiman
4. Reanalysis Nerea Madariaga
5. Analogy and extension Alice C. Harris
6. Restructuring David W. Lightfoot
7. Parameter setting Theresa Biberauer and Ian Roberts
8. Contact and borrowing Tania Kuteva
Part II. Methods and Tools: 9. The comparative method and comparative reconstruction James Clackson
10. Internal reconstruction Gisella Ferraresi and Maria Goldbach
11. Corpora and quantitative methods Susan Pintzuk, Ann Taylor and Anthony Warner
12. Phylogenetic reconstruction in syntax: the parametric comparison method Giuseppe Longobardi and Cristina Guardiano
Part III. Principles and Constraints: 13. Universal grammar Anders Holmberg
14. Abduction Henning Andersen
15. Transparency David W. Lightfoot
16. Uniformitarianism Ian Roberts
17. Markedness, naturalness and complexity Anna Roussou
18. Acquisition and learnability David W. Lightfoot
Part IV. Major Issues and Themes: 19. The actuation problem George Walkden
20. Inertia Ian Roberts
21. Gradience and gradualness vs abruptness Marit Westergaard
22. Cyclicity Elly van Gelderen
Part V. Explanations: 23. Endogenous and exogenous theories of syntactic change David Willis
24. Imperfect transmission and discontinuity David W. Lightfoot
25. Social conditioning Suzanne Romaine
26. Non-syntactic sources and triggers of syntactic change Laurel J. Brinton and Elizabeth Closs Traugott
Part VI. Models and Approaches: 27. Principles and parameters Adam Ledgeway and Ian Roberts
28. Biolinguistics Cedric Boeckx, Pedro Tiago Martins and Evelina Leivada
29. Lexical-functional grammar Kersti Börjars and Nigel Vincent
30. Typological approaches Sonia Cristofaro and Paolo Ramat
31. Functional approaches Marianne Mithun.

Subject Areas: Grammar, syntax & morphology [CFK], Historical & comparative linguistics [CFF]