The Cambridge History of the Romance Languages: Volume 1, Structures

The most comprehensive survey of the history of the Romance languages ever published in English.

Martin Maiden (Edited by), John Charles Smith (Edited by), Adam Ledgeway (Edited by)

9780521800723, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 2 December 2010

888 pages, 115 tables
23.5 x 16.1 x 4.5 cm, 1.5 kg

'… an authoritative overview of some of the most relevant topics in Romance historical and comparative linguistics … this is a reference work that all linguists researching any of the Romance languages should take into consideration, from phonologists to sociolinguists to syntacticians.' Miquel Simonet, Journal of Sociolinguistics

This Cambridge History is the most comprehensive survey of the history of the Romance languages ever published in English. It engages with new and original topics that reflect wider-ranging comparative concerns, such as the relation between diachrony and synchrony, morphosyntactic typology, pragmatic change, the structure of written Romance, and lexical stability. Volume 1 is organized around the two key recurrent themes of persistence (structural inheritance and continuity from Latin) and innovation (structural change and loss in Romance). An important and novel aspect of the volume is that it accords persistence in Romance a focus in its own right rather than treating it simply as the background to the study of change. In addition, it explores the patterns of innovation (including loss) at all linguistic levels. The result is a rich structural history which marries together data and theory to produce new perspectives on the structural evolution of the Romance languages.

1. Romance linguistics and historical linguistics. Reflections on synchrony and diachrony Rosanna Sornicola
2. Syllable, segment and prosody Michele Loporcaro
3. Phonological processes Michele Loporcaro
4. Morphophonological persistence Martin Maiden
5. Morphophonological innovation Martin Maiden
6. Change and continuity in form-function relationships John Charles Smith
7. Morphosyntactic persistence from Latin into Romance Giampaolo Salvi
8. Syntactic and morphosyntactic typology and change in Latin and Romance Adam Ledgeway
9. Pragmatic and discourse changes from Latin to Romance Maria Manoliu
10. Word formation Brigitte Bauer
11. Lexical stability Arnulf Stefenelli
12. Lexical change Steven Dworkin
13. Latin and the structure of written Romance Christopher Pountain
14. Slangs and jargons John Trumper.

Subject Areas: Historical & comparative linguistics [CFF], Language: reference & general [CB]