The grammar of negative polarity items is one of the challengesfor linguistic theory. NPIs cross-cut all traditional categories in grammar and semantics, yet their distribution is by no means arbitrary. Theories of NPI licensing have been proposed in terms of syntax, semantics, and pragmatics - each with its own merits and problems. The volume comprises state-of-the-art studies and suggests an interpolation approach to NPI licensing.

Can language change be modelled as an evolutionary process? Can notions like variation, selection and competition be fruitfully applied to facts of language development? The present volume ties together various strands of linguistic research which can bring us towards an answer to these questions. In one of the youngest and rapidly growing areas of linguistic research, mathematical models and simulations of competition based developments have been applied to instances of language change. By matching the predicted and observed developmental trends, researchers gauge existing models to the needs of linguistic applications and evaluate the fruitfulness of evolutionary models in linguistics. The present volume confronts these studies with more empirically-based studies in creolization and historical language change which bear on key concepts of evolutionary models. What does it mean for a linguistic construction to survive its competitors? How do the interacting factors in phases of creolization differ from those in ordinary language change, and how - consequently - might Creole languages differ structurally from older languages? Some of the authors, finally, also address the question how different aspects of our linguistic competence tie in with our more elementary cognitive capacities. The volume contains contributions by Brady Clark et al., Elly van Gelderen, Alain Kihm, Manfred Krifka, Wouter Kusters, Robert van Rooij, Anette Rosenbach, John McWhorter, Teresa Satterfield, Michael Tomasello and Elizabeth C. Traugott. The book brings together contributions from two areas of research: the study of language evolution by means of methods from artifical intelligence/artificial life (like computer simulations and analytic mathematical methods) on the one hand, and empirically oriented research from historical linguistics and creolisation studies that uses concepts from evolutionary theory as a heuristic tool in a qualitative way. The book is thus interesting for readers from both traditions because it supplies them with information about relevant ongoing research and useful methods and data from the other camp.

Meanings of words are constantly changing, and the forces driving these changes are varied and diverse. Linguistic analyses are usually concerned with language-internal processes, while investigations of language-external historical developments tend to disregard linguistic considerations. It is evident, however, that an investigation of diachronic semantics will have to consider both sides: a specific theory of meaning including a proper place for lexical semantics on the one hand, and incorporate knowledge about the world and the social and cultural environment of speakers who use language as a tool for communication on the other. The collection focuses on meaning change as a topic of interdisciplinary research. Distinguished scholars in diachronic semantics, general linguistics, classical philology, philosophy of language, anthropology and history offer in depth studies of language internal and external factors of meaning change. This broad range of perspectives, unprecedented in research publications of recent years, is a pioneering attempt to mirror the multi-facetteous nature of language as a formal, social, cognitive, cultural and historical entity. The contributions, each exploring the research issues, methods and techniques of their particular field, are directed towards a broader audience of interested readers, thus enhancing interdisciplinary exchange.

"Adverbs, Events, and Other Things" treats issues in the semantics of manner adverbs. Part I takes up the Davidsonian claim that manner adverbs are predicates of events. The book investigates the subtle interplay of event individuation and various kinds of event modification and claims that manner adverbs play a core role in singling out both simple and complex events. Part II of the book is devoted to word order phenomena involving manner adverbs in German. Presenting a general theory of predication structure for German sentences, the author shows how the position of manner adverbs - in interplay with other factors - determines the division of an utterance into topic and comment. She thereby gives semantic evidence in favour of the claim that manner adverbs in German have a syntactic base position.

This book explores the semantic and pragmatic mechanisms underlying grammaticalization. Regine Eckardt argues that language change frequently involves a structural reorganization at the phonological, morphological, and syntactic levels. Speakers not only master the structural aspect of such reanalyses, they also-as the author argues-keep a detailed mental record of what has happened to meaning. The author develops semantic reanalysis as the semantic correlate and tracks its effects in meaning change. Several case studies offer new insights in the architecture of conceptual thinking that is part of the human language faculty.
Professor Eckardt develops her approach in terms of formal semantic theory. She shows how neatly tailored analyses in truth-conditional compositional semantics can elucidate the structural mechanisms of meaning change. Her exposition is advanced in the context of several in-depth case studies containing data new to historical linguistics.