The Syntax of the Celtic Languages
A Comparative Perspective

This 1996 book examines Celtic languages in comparative perspective, with a substantial introduction to the field.

Robert D. Borsley (Edited by), Ian Roberts (Edited by)

9780521481601, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 28 March 1996

380 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.5 cm, 0.73 kg

"...they cover considerable ground, and the volume is a valuable contribution to the existing literature on Celtic syntax." Máire B. Noonan, Canadian Journal of Linguistics

This 1996 volume brings together ten chapters on the Celtic languages using the insights of principles-and-parameters theory. The leading researchers in the field examine Welsh, Irish, Breton and Scots Gaelic in comparative perspective, making reference to recent work on English, French, Arabic, German and other languages. The editors have provided a substantial introduction which seeks to make the volume accessible to theoreticians unfamiliar with the Celtic languages and also to Celtic specialists who are less familiar with the theoretical framework underpinning the work. The Syntax of the Celtic Languages makes a substantial contribution both to linguistic theory and to our understanding of the Celtic languages.

Introduction Robert D. Borsley and Ian Roberts
1. Long head movement in Breton Robert D. Borsley, Maria-Luisa Rivero and Janig Stephens
2. Some syntactic effects of suppletion in the Celtic copulas Randall Hendrick
3. Fronting constructions in Welsh Maggie Tallerman
4. Bod in the present tense and in other tenses Alain Rouveret
5. Pronominal enclisis in VSO languages Ian Roberts and Ur Shlonsky
6. Aspect, agreement and measure phrases in Scottish Gaelic David Adger
7. A minimalist approach to some problems of Irish word order Jonathan David Bobaljik and Andrew Carnie
8. Subjects and subject position in Irish James McCloskey
9. Negation in Irish and the representation of monotone decreasing quantifiers Paolo Acquaviva
10. On structural invariance and lexical diversity in VSO Languages: arguments from Irish noun phrases Nigel Duffield
References.

Subject Areas: Grammar, syntax & morphology [CFK]