He has published widely in the synchronic and diachronic syntax of romance and germanic languages and welsh. Diachronic and comparative syntax routledge leading linguists series by ian roberts. The aim of this book is to give an overview of recent developments in the field emphasizing, thus, the importance of diachronic slavonic syntax in general. The synchronic and diachronic syntax of the english verb. The objective is to show that it is meaningful to think of parameters and their synchronic robustness and consequent diachronic stability in size terms. Generative diachronic syntax has developed since the inception of the principles and parameters approach to comparative syntax in the early 1980s and have become increasingly important in historical linguistics and generative theory. Because the field is over 50 years old, an overview of some of the changes it has. He is a fellow of the british academy and a member of the academia europaea. Parameters and the three factors of language design. Section 2 discusses strongweak theories of the morphology syntax interface and their predictions for language change. This book brings together for the first time a series of previously published papers featuring ian roberts pioneering work on diachronic and comparative syntax over the last thirty years in one comprehensive volume. The links below can help you familiarize yourself with policies concerning academic honesty.
Verbs and diachronic syntax a comparative history of. To the extent that, by studying the aspects of grammar which vary, we might arrive at an idea of what does not vary, this study can be seen as one way of studying universals of grammar. Diachronic implications of the rich agreement hypothesis. Generative diachronic syntax has developed since the inception of the principles and parameters approach to comparative syntax in the early 1980s. Cambridge core grammar and syntax syntactic change by ian roberts. Diachronic and comparative syntax ian roberts download. Pdf on dec 1, 2011, montserrat batllori and others published generative diachronic syntax.
Agreement parameters and the development of the english modal auxiliaries. Ian roberts, diachronic syntax oxford textbooks in linguistics. Professor ian roberts faculty of modern and medieval. Introduction syntactic change differs from lexical change in at least two important ways. Taylor linguistic categorization third edition by john r. First, it generally unfolds much more slowly, sometimes taking hundreds of years to run its course to completion, and secondly, it tends to proceed below the threshold of speakers. Current changes in english syntax christian mair and geoffrey leech 1. Kiparsky, david lightfoot, donald ringe, ian roberts and anthony warner. Recently, cup published the collective reference handbook on diachronic generative syntax cambridge handbook of historical syntax, edited by ledgeway and roberts. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading diachronic syntax oxford textbooks in linguistics. Historical syntax and the generative paradigm italian journal of. For this reason, we have chosen to focus on the diachronic aspect of historical syntax in this.
Work on the paper must be exclusively your own, and you must give appropriate citations for any resources you consult, including online resources. Nevertheless, it is the diachronic aspect of historical syntax that has the most interest for linguistics as a whole since it is in this domain that historical syntax contributes something not available from the synchronic study of extant languages. Diachronic syntax ian roberts oxford textbooks in linguistics. Diachronic syntax and modern parametric theory organiser. Diachronic syntax hardcover ian roberts oxford university press. Diachronic and comparative syntax ian roberts this book brings together for the first time a series of previously published papers featuring ian roberts pioneering work on diachronic and comparative syntax over the last thirty years in one comprehensive volume. Picallo ed linguistic variation in the minimalist framework. A comparative history of english and french by ian g. Oxford handbook of universal grammar oxford handbooks. Request pdf on dec 1, 2008, eric haeberli and others published diachronic syntax, i. The main strength is undoubtedly the range of highlevel crosslinguistic work bei. Ian roberts, diachronic syntax oxford textbooks in. This book shows how the generative approach to linguistics may be used to understand how languages change.
As an example, see the collective volumes, the product of the biennial digs diachronic generative syntax conference, published by oup. A minimalist study of lexicalization and grammaticalization by james andrew berry. Ian roberts university of cambridge 1 strengths and weaknesses a what have been the main strengths of generativesyntactic research, with particular emphasis on the early 21st century, and what do you think is wrong with the field of generative syntax today. Natural language and linguistic theory, 3, 1985, pp. Current changes in english syntax lancaster university. This paper considers the question of the nature of parameters from a diachronic perspective, focusing in particular on the case of conditional inversion ci in the history of english. Roberts and roussou aim at providing an account of grammaticalization within the minimalist framework, supporting the analysis with a number of relevant case studies. Roberts, 9780792324959, available at book depository with free delivery worldwide. Syntactic effects of the loss of case marking mcfadden, thomas. Download it once and read it on your kindle device, pc, phones or tablets. Current research on diachronic syntax has yet to provide an account of syntactic change consistent with our theoretical understanding of knowledge of language and its acquisition.
Verbs and diachronic syntax, studies in natural language and linguistic theory. The central idea in generative approaches to diachronic syntax has always been. Project muse promotes the creation and dissemination of essential humanities and social science resources through collaboration with libraries, publishers, and scholars worldwide. Diachronic syntax oxford textbooks in linguistics kindle edition by roberts, ian. Both of these diachronic phenomena can loosely be said to involve the rise and fall of agreement. Professor roberts is a generative linguist and enthusiastic adopter of chomskys minimalist program.
This is comparative and diachronic syntax at its very best. Diachronic and comparative syntax by roberts, ian ebook. His main research interest is in comparative and diachronic syntax in the context of chomskys minimalist program for linguistic theory. The focus is on the mechanisms of syntactic change with special reference to intermediary steps and on the question of how these microchanges can be.
Lightfoot 1979, 1991, 1999, van kemenade 1987, roberts 1997, kiparsky 1996, 1997, haeberli 1999, 2004, biberauer and roberts 2005, 2008, or changes affecting the inventory of crelated clausal particles and the rise of generalized v2 syntax in germanic cf. Theresa biberauer the central idea in generative approaches to diachronic syntax has always been that syntactic change results from childrens reanalysis of their parents grammar g1. Ian roberts explains how generative theory can throw light on central questions in historical linguistics, including wordorder change, grammaticalization, and reanalysis. Diachronic syntax by ian roberts cognitive grammar an introduction by john r. View enhanced pdf access article on wiley online library html view download pdf for offline. However, explanatory adequacy requires us to account.
Many thanks go to my friends and peers from the reading group, in. To a very large extent, i have been inspired by the many talks, classes, appointments and other interactions that took place in. The study of comparative grammar has long been a concern of linguistic theory. The volumes by lightfoot and roberts highlight the particu larly urgent necessity of a better connection between acquisitional and historical studies.
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