The Linguistic Cycle - Language Change and the Language Faculty (Paperback)

Elly van Gelderen provides examples of linguistic cycles from a number of languages and language families, along with an account of the linguistic cycle in terms of minimalist economy principles. A cycle involves grammaticalization from lexical to functional category followed by renewal. Some well-known cycles involve negatives, where full negative phrases are reanalyzed as words and affixes and are then renewed by full phrases again. Verbal agreement is another example: full pronouns are reanalyzed as agreement markers and are renewed again. Each chapter provides data on a separate cycle from a myriad of languages. Van Gelderen argues that the cross-linguistic similarities can be seen as Economy Principles present in the initial cognitive system or Universal Grammar. She further claims that some of the cycles can be used to classify a language as analytic or synthetic, and she provides insight into the shape of the earliest human language and how it evolved.

General

Imprint:	Oxford UniversityPress
Country of origin:	United States
Release date:	May 2011
First published:	April 2011
Authors:	Elly van Gelderen (Regents' Professor, Department of English)
Dimensions:	231 x 169 x 31mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Paperback
Pages:	464
ISBN-13:	978-0-19-975604-9
Categories:	Books > Language & Literature > Language & linguistics > Historical & comparative linguistics > General Books > Language & Literature > Language & linguistics > Semantics (meaning) > Lexicography Books > Language & Literature > Language & linguistics > Grammar, syntax, linguistic structure > General
LSN:	0-19-975604-X
Barcode:	9780199756049

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