Get fulltext from our e-platform
Diachronic Clues to Synchronic Grammar
This volume emphasizes a new line of thinking in generative grammar which acknowledges that certain synchronic properties of languages can only be fully understood if diachronic data is taken into consideration. The central topics addressed in this collection of papers are (1) a critical assessment of the hypothesis that certain apparently synchronic generalizations are actually the result of the mechanisms of language change, (2) an inquiry into how diachronic data can be used to evaluate and shape formal analyses of particular synchronic phenomena. Reviving the interest in diachronic explanations for synchronic data, the contributions provide novel and original diachronic accounts of phenomena that up to now have escaped a deeper synchronic explanation, including the nature of EPP features, gaps in the distribution of complementizer agreement, and counterexamples to the generalization that rich verbal inflection correlates with verb movement.
[Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today, 72] 2004. viii, 228 pp.
Publishing status: Available
Published online on 4 September 2006
Published online on 4 September 2006
© John Benjamins Publishing Company
Table of Contents
- Preface | pp. vii–viii
- IntroductionEric Fuß and Carola Trips | pp. 1–29
- On the development of possessive determiners: Consequences for DP structureArtemis Alexiadou | pp. 31–58
- Diachronic Clues to Pro-drop and complementizer agreement in BavarianEric Fuß | pp. 59–100
- Syntactic effects of inflectional morphology and competing GrammarsEric Haeberli | pp. 101–130
- Language change versus grammar change: What diachronic data reveal about the distinction between core grammar and peripheryRoland Hinterhölzl | pp. 131–160
- The EPP, fossilized movement and reanalysisAndrew Simpson | pp. 161–189
- Restructuring and the development of functional categoriesZoe Wu | pp. 191–217
- Index | pp. 219–226
“This is a fine collection. Historical morphosyntacticians will find much of interest in the volume, both in terms of novel empirical contributions and theoretical innovations.”
Brady Zack Clark, Northwestern University, on Linguist List 16.2250, 2005
Cited by (1)
Cited by one other publication
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 24 february 2026. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.