This book analyses the development of a number of English and
French constructions involving various kinds of subject-verb
inversion. The analysis is framed in terms of the
principles-and-parameters approach to syntactic theory, and
provides strong support for the adoption of this approach in the
description and explanation of language change. The book falls into
three parts. The first presents an overall framework for the
analysis of inversion constructions and motivates, on the basis of
synchronic data, several parameters which distinguish among the
various Romance and Germanic languages. The second part shows how
several near-simultaneous syntactic changes in the history of
French can be explained as a change in one of the parameters
introduced in Chapter One. A notable aspect of this analysis is the
way in which the distribution of null subjects is shown to relate
to verb-placement. The third part of the book treats verb-movement
in the history of English, arguing in detail that the attested
changes in this area are due to a change in the internal structure
of Infl', a proposal which has important ramifications for the
theory of functional heads. Throughout the book, emphasis is placed
on the theoretical questions raised by language change. In this
connection the two notions of diachronic reanalysis and parametric
change are distinguished. Verbs and Diachronic Syntax will interest
all theoretical linguists as well as specialists in the history of
English, history of French, Germanic philology and Romance
philology.
General
| Imprint: |
Springer
|
| Country of origin: |
Netherlands |
| Series: |
Studies in Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, 28 |
| Release date: |
December 1993 |
| First published: |
December 1993 |
| Authors: |
I. G. Roberts
|
| Dimensions: |
240 x 160 x 20mm (L x W x T) |
| Format: |
Paperback
|
| Pages: |
376 |
| Edition: |
Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 1993 |
| ISBN-13: |
978-0-7923-2495-9 |
| Categories: |
Books >
Language & Literature >
Language & linguistics >
Philosophy of language
|
| LSN: |
0-7923-2495-1 |
| Barcode: |
9780792324959 |
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