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Books > Language & Literature > Language & linguistics > Palaeography
Many of the world's languages permit or require clause-initial
positioning of the primary predicate, potentially alongside some or
all of its dependents. While such predicate fronting (where
"fronting" may or may not involve movement) is a widespread
phenomenon, it is also subject to intricate and largely unexplained
variation. In Parameters of Predicate Fronting, Vera Lee-Schoenfeld
and Dennis Ott bring together leaders in the field of comparative
syntax to explore the empirical manifestations and theoretical
modelling of predicate fronting across languages. There exists by
now a rich literature on predicate fronting, but few attempts have
been made at synthesizing the resulting empirical observations and
theoretical implementations. While individual phenomena have been
described in some detail, we are currently far from a complete
understanding of the uniformity and variation underlying the wider
cross-linguistic picture. This volume takes steps towards this goal
by showcasing the state of the art in research on predicate
fronting and the parameters governing its realization in a range of
diverse languages. Covering topics like prosody, VP-fronting, and
predicate doubling across a wide arrange of languages, including
English, German, Malagasy, Niuean, Ch'ol, Asante, Twi, Limbum,
Krachi, Hebrew, and multiple sign languages, this collection
enriches our understanding of the predicate fronting phenomenon.
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