The volume focuses on semantic shifts and motivation patterns in the lexicon. Its key feature is its lexico-typological orientation, i.e. a heavy emphasis on systematic cross-linguistic comparison. The book presents current theoretical and methodological trends in the study of semantic shifts and motivational patters based on an abundance of empirical findings across genetically, areally and typologically diverse languages.

Based on extensive and diverse material from 70 languages, and covering a range of previously undiscussed problems, this book provides a thorough analysis of how nominalization types interact with other structural features. It focuses on action nominal constructions, and in particular, the comparison of their syntactic structure with that of finite clauses and of other noun phrases, a problem which has claimed much attention in current syntactic theories. Supported by rich empirical material and clearly illustrated with examples from all the sample languages, the book provides a detailed and consistent basis for constructing a typology of derived constructions and for presenting cross-linguistic comparisons.

Contents:
Part 1 Theoretical background: 1. Preliminaries; the aim of this book, 2. ANCs as non-finite noun clauses, 3. Noun phrases vs. finite clauses in different languages. Part 2 The Data: 4. The data base, 5. Type 1:'Sentential', 6. Type 2:'Possessive-Accusative', 7. Type 3: 'Ergative-Possessive', 8. Type 4:'Nomimal', 9. Less frequent types, 10. Splits and variations. Part 3 Discussion: 11. Explanation of type-membership 12.Explanantion of the attested types; Summary; Appendix A: Alphabetical language index; Appendix B: ANC types with examples; Notes; Bibliography; Index

The volume focuses on semantic shifts and motivation patterns in the lexicon. Its key feature is its lexico-typological orientation, i.e. a heavy emphasis on systematic cross-linguistic comparison. The book presents current theoretical and methodological trends in the study of semantic shifts and motivational patters based on an abundance of empirical findings across genetically, areally and typologically diverse languages.