Syntactic Change In Akkadian
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Syntactic Change In Akkadian
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Author : Guy Deutscher
language : en
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Release Date : 2000-11-09
Syntactic Change In Akkadian written by Guy Deutscher and has been published by OUP Oxford this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2000-11-09 with Language Arts & Disciplines categories.
Akkadian is one of the earliest attested languages and the oldest recorded Semitic language. It exists in written record between 2500BC and 500BC, much of it in letters and reports concerned with domestic and business matters, and written in colloquial language. It provides a unique and valuable source for the study of linguistic change but which, perhaps because of the impenetrability of its writing system, has rarely been exploited by linguists. In this book, Guy Deutscher examines the historical development of subordinate structures in Akkadian. A case study comprises the first two parts of the book, presenting an historical grammar of sentential complementation. Part I traces the emergence of new structures and describes how the finite complements first emerged in Babylonian. It also explains the grammaticalization of the quotative construction. Part II is a functional history which examines the changes in the functional roles of different structures. It shows how, during the history of the language, finite complements and embedded questions became more widespread, whereas other structures (e.g. infinite complements, parataxis, etc.) receded. Part III seeks to explain the historical developments in a theoretical light, showing how the development in Akkadian is mirrored in many other languages. It goes on to suggest that the emergence of finite complementation may be seen as 'adaptive' and related to the development of more complex communication patterns. This book will be of interest to both specialists and general linguists alike. For specialists it offers a contribution towards a badly-needed historical grammar of the Akkadian language. For general linguists this book will be of interest not only for the questions which it raises about the nature of complementation, but also for the window which it provides on to this little-known language.
The Genesis Of Syntactic Complexity
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Author : T. Givón
language : en
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
Release Date : 2009-02-04
The Genesis Of Syntactic Complexity written by T. Givón and has been published by John Benjamins Publishing this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2009-02-04 with Language Arts & Disciplines categories.
Complex hierarchic syntax is a hallmark of human language. The highest level of syntactic complexity, recursive-embedded clauses, has been singled out by some for a special status as the evolutionary apex of the uniquely - human language faculty - evolutionary yet mysteriously immune to Darwinian adaptive selection. Prof. Givón's book treats syntactic complexity as an integral part of the evolutionary rise of human communication. The book first describes grammar as an adaptive instrument of communication, assembled upon the pre-existing platform of pre-linguistic object- and-event cognition and mental representation. It then surveys the two grand developmental trends of human language: diachrony, the communal enterprise directly responsible for fashioning synchronic morpho-syntax and cross-language diversity; and ontogeny, the individual endeavor directly responsible for acquiring the competent use of grammar. The genesis of syntactic complexity along these two developmental trends is compared with second language acquisition, pre-grammatical pidgin and pre-human communication. The evolutionary relevance of language diachrony, language ontogeny and pidginization is argued for on general bio-evolutionary grounds: It is the organism's adaptive on-line behavior- invention, learning and skill acquisition - that is the common thread running through all three developmental trends. The neuro-cognitive circuits that underlie language, and their evolutionary underpinnings, are described and assessed. Recursive embedding turns out to be not an adaptive target on its own, but the by-product of two distinct adaptive moves: (i) the recruitment of conjoined clauses as modal operators on, or referential specifiers of, other clauses; and (ii) the subsequent condensation of paratactic into syntactic structures.
Language Change Variation And Universals
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Author : Peter W. Culicover
language : en
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Release Date : 2021
Language Change Variation And Universals written by Peter W. Culicover and has been published by Oxford University Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2021 with Language Arts & Disciplines categories.
This volume explores how human languages become what they are, why they differ from one another in certain ways but not in others, and why they change in the ways that they do. Peter Culicover proposes that language change and variation are responses to the pressure to find efficient grammatical solutions to the task of expressing human thought.
Gradience Gradualness And Grammaticalization
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Author : Elizabeth Closs Traugott
language : en
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
Release Date : 2010-02-24
Gradience Gradualness And Grammaticalization written by Elizabeth Closs Traugott and has been published by John Benjamins Publishing this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2010-02-24 with Language Arts & Disciplines categories.
This volume, which emerged from a workshop at the New Reflections on Grammaticalization 4 conference held at KU Leuven in July 2008, contains a collection of papers which investigate the relationship between synchronic gradience and the apparent gradualness of linguistic change, largely from the perspective of grammaticalization. In addition to versions of the papers presented at the workshop, the volume contains specially commissioned contributions, some of which offer commentaries on a subset of the other articles. The articles address a number of themes central to grammaticalization studies, such as the role of reanalysis and analogy in grammaticalization, the formal modelling of grammaticalization, and the relationship between formal and functional change, using data from a range of languages, and (in some cases) from particular electronic corpora. The volume will be of specific interest to historical linguists working on grammaticalization, and general linguists working on the interface between synchrony and diachrony.
Sociolinguistic And Typological Perspectives On Language Variation
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Author : Silvia Ballarè
language : en
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Release Date : 2023-10-04
Sociolinguistic And Typological Perspectives On Language Variation written by Silvia Ballarè and has been published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2023-10-04 with Language Arts & Disciplines categories.
Linguistic variation, loosely defined as the wholesale processes whereby patterns of language structures exhibit divergent distributions within and across languages, has traditionally been the object of research of at least two branches of linguistics: variationist sociolinguistics and linguistic typology. In spite of their similar research agendas, the two approaches have only rarely converged in the description and interpretation of variation. While a number of studies attempting to address at least aspects of this relationship have appeared in recent years, a principled discussion on how the two disciplines may interact has not yet been carried out in a programmatic way. This volume aims to fill this gap and offers a cross-disciplinary venue for discussing the bridging between sociolinguistic and typological research from various angles, with the ultimate goal of laying out the methodological and conceptual foundations of an integrated research agenda for the study of linguistic variation.
A Grammar Of Old Assyrian
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Author : N.J.C. Kouwenberg
language : en
Publisher: BRILL
Release Date : 2022-05-09
A Grammar Of Old Assyrian written by N.J.C. Kouwenberg and has been published by BRILL this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2022-05-09 with Reference categories.
A Grammar of Old Assyrian describes the language contained in a very large corpus of cuneiform tablets mainly found in Anatolia in the middle of Turkey and dating to ca 1900-1700 BC. These tablets come from the archives of a community of Assyrian merchants who conducted a long-distance trade between Assyria and Anatolia and eventually settled in Anatolia. Alongside Babylonian, Assyrian is one of the main branches of Akkadian, the Semitic language spoken in Mesopotamia (roughly present-day Iraq) in the third, second and first millennium BC, and Old Assyrian is its oldest attested stage. Old Assyrian is also one of the oldest and largest corpora of texts in any Semitic language. "Kouwenberg has managed to describe and discuss the corpus in a structural and comprehensive manner. His grammar will therefore prove to be a useful source of information for decades." - J.J. de Ridder, in: Bibliotheca Orientalis 76.1-2 (2019)
Interaction Of Morphology And Syntax
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Author : Zygmunt Frajzyngier
language : en
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
Release Date : 2008
Interaction Of Morphology And Syntax written by Zygmunt Frajzyngier and has been published by John Benjamins Publishing this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2008 with Language Arts & Disciplines categories.
The present volume deals with hitherto unexplored issues on the interaction of morphology and syntax. These selected and invited papers mainly concern Cushitic and Chadic languages, the least-described members of the Afroasiatic family. Three papers in the volume explore one or more typological characteristics across an entire language family or branch, while others focus on one or two languages within a family and the implications of their structures for the family, the phylum, or linguistic typology as a whole. The diversity of topics addressed within the present volume reflects the great diversity of language structures and functions within the Afroasiatic phylum.
Variation Contact And Reconstruction In The Ancient Indo European Languages
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Author :
language : en
Publisher: BRILL
Release Date : 2022-05-20
Variation Contact And Reconstruction In The Ancient Indo European Languages written by and has been published by BRILL this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2022-05-20 with Language Arts & Disciplines categories.
The collected papers in this book address an array of important issues in the field of Historical Linguistics and, specifically, Indo-European Linguistics, including different theoretical approaches and innovative methodologies for studying language organization and change, building on the strict relationship between Linguistics and Philology. The papers provide significant contributions to the understanding of aspects of variation, contact and reconstruction, reflect a wide range of perspectives, and focus on issues and data from a large variety of languages. The themes that emerge from the papers center around two main research lines: 1. the relationship between language facts and historical accidents; 2. the relationship between grammatical categories and conceptual representations. The book is of interest for any reader seeking to gain insight into the nature of language organization and change.
Demonstratives In Discourse
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Author : Åshild Næss
language : en
Publisher: Language Science Press
Release Date : 2020-10-27
Demonstratives In Discourse written by Åshild Næss and has been published by Language Science Press this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2020-10-27 with Language Arts & Disciplines categories.
This volume explores the use of demonstratives in the structuring and management of discourse, and their role as engagement expressions, from a crosslinguistic perspective. It seeks to establish which types of discourse-related functions are commonly encoded by demonstratives, beyond the well-established reference-tracking and deictic uses, and also investigates which members of demonstrative paradigms typically take on certain functions. Moreover, it looks at the roles of non-deictic demonstratives, that is, members of the paradigm which are dedicated e.g. to contrastive, recognitional, or anaphoric functions and do not express deictic distinctions. Several of the studies also focus on manner demonstratives, which have been little studied from a crosslinguistic perspective. The volume thus broadens the scope of investigation of demonstratives to look at how their core functions interact with a wider range of discourse functions in a number of different languages. The volume covers languages from a range of geographical locations and language families, including Cushitic and Mande languages in Africa, Oceanic and Papuan languages in the Pacific region, Algonquian and Guaykuruan in the Americas, and Germanic, Slavic and Finno-Ugric languages in the Eurasian region. It also includes two papers taking a broader typological approach to specific discourse functions of demonstratives.
Language At Large
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Author : Alexandra Aikhenvald
language : en
Publisher: BRILL
Release Date : 2011-07-27
Language At Large written by Alexandra Aikhenvald and has been published by BRILL this book supported file pdf, txt, epub, kindle and other format this book has been release on 2011-07-27 with Language Arts & Disciplines categories.
The volume brings together important essays on syntax and semantics by Aikhenvald and Dixon, highlighting their expertise in various fields of linguistics. The first part focusses on linguistic typology, covering case markers used on verbs, argument-determined constructions, unusual meanings of causatives, the semantic basis for a typology, word-class-changing derivations, speech reports and semi-direct speech. The second part concentrates on documentation and analysis of previously undescribed languages, from South America and Indigenous Australia. The third part addresses a variety of issues in grammar and lexicography of English. This includes pronouns with transferred reference, comparative constructions, features of the noun phrase, and the discussion of 'twice'. The treatment of Australian Aboriginal words in dictionaries is discussed in the final chapter.