With individual chapters embracing different theoretical perspectives, from the purely descriptive to formal analyses of novel data, this Handbook provides readers with an exhaustive treatment of historical syntax, and is an invaluable resource for postgraduates and researchers in the field.
Change is an inherent feature of all aspects of language, and syntax is no exception. While the synchronic study of syntax allows us to make discoveries about the nature of syntactic structure, the study of historical syntax offers even greater possibilities. Over recent decades, the study of historical syntax has proven to be a powerful scientific tool of enquiry with which to challenge and reassess hypotheses and ideas about the nature of syntactic structure which go beyond the observed limits of the study of the synchronic syntax of individual languages or language families. In this timely Handbook, the editors bring together the best of recent international scholarship on historical syntax. Each chapter is focused on a theme rather than an individual language, allowing readers to discover how systematic descriptions of historical data can profitably inform and challenge highly diverse sets of theoretical assumptions.
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Written by a team of international scholars, this outstanding Handbook provides a complete overview of research into historical syntax.
Introduction Adam Ledgeway and Ian Roberts; Part I. Types and Mechanisms
of Syntactic Change:
1. Grammaticalization Heiko Narrog and Bernd Heine;
2.
Degrammaticalization David Willis;
3. Exaptation John Haiman;
4. Reanalysis
Nerea Madariaga;
5. Analogy and extension Alice C. Harris;
6. Restructuring
David W. Lightfoot;
7. Parameter setting Theresa Biberauer and Ian Roberts;
8. Contact and borrowing Tania Kuteva; Part II. Methods and Tools:
9. The
comparative method and comparative reconstruction James Clackson;
10.
Internal reconstruction Gisella Ferraresi and Maria Goldbach;
11. Corpora and
quantitative methods Susan Pintzuk, Ann Taylor and Anthony Warner;
12.
Phylogenetic reconstruction in syntax: the parametric comparison method
Giuseppe Longobardi and Cristina Guardiano; Part III. Principles and
Constraints:
13. Universal grammar Anders Holmberg;
14. Abduction Henning
Andersen;
15. Transparency David W. Lightfoot;
16. Uniformitarianism Ian
Roberts;
17. Markedness, naturalness and complexity Anna Roussou;
18.
Acquisition and learnability David W. Lightfoot; Part IV. Major Issues and
Themes:
19. The actuation problem George Walkden;
20. Inertia Ian Roberts;
21. Gradience and gradualness vs abruptness Marit Westergaard;
22. Cyclicity
Elly van Gelderen; Part V. Explanations:
23. Endogenous and exogenous
theories of syntactic change David Willis;
24. Imperfect transmission and
discontinuity David W. Lightfoot;
25. Social conditioning Suzanne Romaine;
26. Non-syntactic sources and triggers of syntactic change Laurel J. Brinton
and Elizabeth Closs Traugott; Part VI. Models and Approaches:
27. Principles
and parameters Adam Ledgeway and Ian Roberts;
28. Biolinguistics Cedric
Boeckx, Pedro Tiago Martins and Evelina Leivada;
29. Lexical-functional
grammar Kersti Börjars and Nigel Vincent;
30. Typological approaches Sonia
Cristofaro and Paolo Ramat;
31. Functional approaches Marianne Mithun.
Adam Ledgeway is Professor of Italian and Romance Linguistics and Chair of the Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages at the University of Cambridge. His research interests are in the comparative history and morphosyntax of the Romance languages, Italian dialectology, syntactic theory and linguistic change. His recent books include From Latin to Romance: Morphosyntactic Typology and Change (2012) and Diachrony and Dialects: Grammatical Change in the Dialects of Italy (co-edited with P. Benincà and N. Vincent, 2014). Ian Roberts is Professor of Linguistics at the University of Cambridge. His research interests are in comparative syntax, set against the background assumptions of Universal Grammar argued for by Noam Chomsky. He currently holds a European Research Council Advanced Grant for a project to investigate a hypothesis as to the way in which grammatical options made available by Universal Grammar are organised. His recent publications include Parametric Variation (co-edited with T. Biberauer, A. Holmberg and M. Sheehan, Cambridge, 2009) and Syntactic Variation: The Dialects of Italy (co-edited with R. D'Alessandro and A. Ledgeway, Cambridge, 2010).
