Syntactic Reconstruction and Proto-Germanic

Syntactic Reconstruction and Proto-Germanic PDF Author: George Walkden
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0198712294
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
This book offers reconstructions of various syntactic properties of Proto-Germanic, including verb position in main clauses, the syntax of the wh-system, and the (non-)occurrence of null pronominal subjects and objects. Although previous studies have looked at the lexical and phonological reconstruction of Proto-Germanic, little is currently known about the syntax of the language, and it has even been argued that the reconstruction of syntax is impossible. Dr Walkden uses extensive evidence from the early Germanic languages - Old English, Old High German, Old Saxon, Old Norse, and Gothic - to show that syntactic reconstruction is not only possible but also profitable. He argues that while the reconstruction of syntax differs from lexical-phonological reconstruction due to the so-called 'correspondence problem', this is not insurmountable. In fact, the approach taken in current Minimalist theories, in which syntactic variation is attributed to the properties of lexical items, opens the door for syntactic reconstruction as lexical reconstruction. The book also discusses practical solutions for circumventing the correspondence problem, in particular the use of both distributional properties of lexical items and the phonological forms of such items in order to establish cognacy. The book will be of interest to historical linguists working on syntactic reconstruction and the Germanic languages, from graduate level upwards, as well as to advanced students of syntactic change more generally.

Syntactic Reconstruction and Proto-Germanic

Syntactic Reconstruction and Proto-Germanic PDF Author: George Walkden
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0198712294
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 296

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book offers reconstructions of various syntactic properties of Proto-Germanic, including verb position in main clauses, the syntax of the wh-system, and the (non-)occurrence of null pronominal subjects and objects. Although previous studies have looked at the lexical and phonological reconstruction of Proto-Germanic, little is currently known about the syntax of the language, and it has even been argued that the reconstruction of syntax is impossible. Dr Walkden uses extensive evidence from the early Germanic languages - Old English, Old High German, Old Saxon, Old Norse, and Gothic - to show that syntactic reconstruction is not only possible but also profitable. He argues that while the reconstruction of syntax differs from lexical-phonological reconstruction due to the so-called 'correspondence problem', this is not insurmountable. In fact, the approach taken in current Minimalist theories, in which syntactic variation is attributed to the properties of lexical items, opens the door for syntactic reconstruction as lexical reconstruction. The book also discusses practical solutions for circumventing the correspondence problem, in particular the use of both distributional properties of lexical items and the phonological forms of such items in order to establish cognacy. The book will be of interest to historical linguists working on syntactic reconstruction and the Germanic languages, from graduate level upwards, as well as to advanced students of syntactic change more generally.

Syntactic Reconstruction and Proto-Germanic

Syntactic Reconstruction and Proto-Germanic PDF Author: George Lee Walkden
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description


Syntactic Reconstruction and Proto-Germanic

Syntactic Reconstruction and Proto-Germanic PDF Author: George Walkden
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191021105
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
This book offers reconstructions of various syntactic properties of Proto-Germanic, including verb position in main clauses, the syntax of the wh-system, and the (non-)occurrence of null pronominal subjects and objects. Although previous studies have looked at the lexical and phonological reconstruction of Proto-Germanic, little is currently known about the syntax of the language, and it has even been argued that the reconstruction of syntax is impossible. Dr Walkden uses extensive evidence from the early Germanic languages - Old English, Old High German, Old Saxon, Old Norse, and Gothic - to show that syntactic reconstruction is not only possible but also profitable. He argues that while the reconstruction of syntax differs from lexical-phonological reconstruction due to the so-called 'correspondence problem', this is not insurmountable. In fact, the approach taken in current Minimalist theories, in which syntactic variation is attributed to the properties of lexical items, opens the door for syntactic reconstruction as lexical reconstruction. The book also discusses practical solutions for circumventing the correspondence problem, in particular the use of both distributional properties of lexical items and the phonological forms of such items in order to establish cognacy. The book will be of interest to historical linguists working on syntactic reconstruction and the Germanic languages, from graduate level upwards, as well as to advanced students of syntactic change more generally.

Syntactic Reconstruction and Proto-Germanic

Syntactic Reconstruction and Proto-Germanic PDF Author: George Walkden
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780191780837
Category : Germanic languages
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
Walkden investigates methods, possibilities, and limitations in the reconstruction of syntax in a framework which holds that the object of enquiry is knowledge of language and which acknowledges that the transmission of that knowledge is discontinuous.

Toward a grammar of Proto-Germanic

Toward a grammar of Proto-Germanic PDF Author: Frans van Coetsem
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
ISBN: 3111549046
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 341

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Book Description
Toward a Grammar of Proto-Germanic.

A Diachronic Phonology from Proto-Germanic to Old English Stressing West-Saxon Conditions

A Diachronic Phonology from Proto-Germanic to Old English Stressing West-Saxon Conditions PDF Author: Charles M. Barrack
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110873516
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 136

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Book Description


Syntactic Change in Germanic

Syntactic Change in Germanic PDF Author: Kate Burridge
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027277028
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 301

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Book Description
This study examines certain features of Dutch syntax between approximately 1300 and 1650. Of central importance are the overall developments in the word order patterning and the various changes they entail elsewhere in the grammar, such as in the negative construction. After an introductory chapter providing goals and background for the study, the quantitative analysis of the data is presented in Chapter 2. Considerable attention is paid to contextual considerations and the pragmatic aspect of word order. Chapter 3 deals specifically with the question of exbraciation; Chapter 4 returns to the functional aspect of word order and discusses the importance of the notion 'topic'. Chapter 5 provides a detailed analysis of the development of negation supported by comparative data from related Germanic languages and in a wider context of overall typological change. The concluding chapter discusses possible explanations of the findings. Two Appendices are added to the book, one providing a sketch grammar of Dutch, the other an annotated list of the corpus used. This study is purposefully eclectic in its approach, drawing upon many different traditions and areas in linguistics. This multifaceted approach is a major strength of the book, which moreover makes an important contribution to theoretical issues by presenting a vast descriptive data base for Dutch.

Oblique Subjects in Germanic

Oblique Subjects in Germanic PDF Author: Jóhanna Barðdal
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3111078078
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 499

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Book Description
Pulling together the threads of forty years of research on oblique subjects in the Germanic languages, this book introduces a novel approach to grammatical relations, based on a definition of subject as the first argument of the argument structure. New data are presented from Gothic, Old Saxon, Old Norse-Icelandic, Old Swedish and Old Danish, as well as from Icelandic, Faroese and German. This includes alternating Dat-Nom/Nom-Dat predicates, where either argument, the dative or the nominative, takes on subject behavior. The subject concept is modeled with the formalism of Construction Grammar, both synchronically and for the purpose of reconstructing grammatical relations for Proto-Germanic.

Perspectives on Historical Syntax

Perspectives on Historical Syntax PDF Author: Carlotta Viti
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company
ISBN: 9027268932
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 353

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Book Description
This volume discusses topics of historical syntax from different theoretical perspectives, ranging from Indo-European studies to generative grammar, functionalism, and typology. It examines mechanisms of syntactic change such as reanalysis, analogy, grammaticalization, independent drift, and language contact, as well as procedures of syntactic reconstruction. More than one factor is considered to explain a syntactic phenomenon, since it is maintained that an accurate account of multiple causations, of both structural and social nature, is to be preferred to considerations of economy. Special attention is given to the relationship between principles of syntactic theory and a search for data reliability through the methods of corpus linguistics. Data are drawn from a variety of languages, including Hittite, Vedic, Ancient Greek, Latin, Romance, Germanic, Baltic, Slavic, Austroasiatic, Gulf of Guinea creoles. The book may be therefore of interest for specialists of these languages in addition to scholars and advanced students of syntax and historical linguistics.

Principles of Syntactic Reconstruction

Principles of Syntactic Reconstruction PDF Author: Gisella Ferraresi
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
ISBN: 9027248184
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
This is a collection of state-of-the-art papers in the field of syntactic reconstruction. It treats a range of topics which are representative of current debates in historical syntax. The novelty and merit of the present book is, the editors believe, that, in contrast to most previous work on diachronic syntax, it combines the perspectives of the traditional philological research on syntactic reconstruction with the insights of modern syntactic theory, as it is emphasised in the Foreword by Giuseppe Longobardi. The volume includes articles by well-recognized researchers in historical linguistics with a focus on syntactic change. In the present volume syntactic reconstruction is discussed from a variety of angles, including historical linguistics, phenomena of language contact, generative approaches as well as typological and variationist research. In the articles, languages from a diverse range of families are discussed, including Indo-European, North and South Caucasian, Sino-Tibetan, and Turkic.