Books > Language & Literature > Language & linguistics > Grammar, syntax, linguistic structure
|
Buy Now
Definiteness in Bulgarian - Modelling the Processes of Language Change (Hardcover)
Loot Price: R7,355
Discovery Miles 73 550
|
|
Definiteness in Bulgarian - Modelling the Processes of Language Change (Hardcover)
Series: Trends in Linguistics. Studies and Monographs [TiLSM]
Expected to ship within 12 - 19 working days
|
In its evolution from a synthetic to an analytic language,
Bulgarian acquired a grammaticalized category of definiteness. The
book presents the first attempt to explore in detail how this
happened by comparing the earliest Modern Bulgarian texts with
contemporary dialect and standard Bulgarian data. The basic units
of analysis are the various types of nominal structures headed by
nouns or pronouns. The analysis requires the strict terminological
disentanglement of form from content and the adoption of a default
inheritance model of definiteness that allow the exhaustive
classification and tagging of nominal structures encountered in the
texts. Tagging makes it possible to apply quantitative analysis to
nominal structure and to assess the types available in the early
texts from a current native-speaker perspective. Based on an
S-curve model of language change, the study establishes that overt
markers of definiteness were first made available to
identifiability-based definites, then to inclusiveness-based
definites, quantitative generics and unique referents. The overt
markers of indefiniteness followed suit, separating indefinites
from non-specifics and typifying generics. This progression of
definiteness was directed by variables such as person, animacy,
gender, number and noun-class, and started in contexts in which
definiteness closely interacted with possessivity. Such an analysis
leads to the realization that the two-dimensional S-curve model
does not account for all language change and that there is a need
for a three-dimensional model. It also demonstrates that, contrary
to previous assumptions, there is continuity between the early
Slavic marker of definiteness (long-form adjectives) and the Modern
Bulgarian article. This discovery, in conjunction with
geolinguistic arguments, sheds new light on the role that relations
inside the Balkan Sprachbund played in the grammaticalization of
Bulgarian definiteness.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
|
You might also like..
|
Email address subscribed successfully.
A activation email has been sent to you.
Please click the link in that email to activate your subscription.