What counts as evidence in linguistics? This question is addressed by the contributions to the present volume (originally published as a Special Issue of Studies in Language 28:3 (2004). Focusing on the innateness debate, what is illustrated is how formal and functional approaches to linguistics… read more
Edited by Olga Fischer, Anette Rosenbach and Dieter Stein
There is a continual growth of interest among linguists of all-theoretical denominations in grammaticalization, a concept central to many linguistic (change) theories. However, the discussion of grammaticalization processes has often suffered from a shortage of concrete empirical studies from one… read more
This chapter focuses on the historical development of genitive variation in White South African English (WSAfE), taking into consideration the longstanding English–Afrikaans contact situation in South Africa and the similarities between the constructions in English and Afrikaans. On the basis of… read more
We present a cross-constructional approach to the history of the genitive alternation and the dative alternation in Late Modern English (AD 1650 to AD 1999), drawing on richly annotated datasets and modern statistical modeling techniques. We identify cross-constructional similarities in the… read more
The present paper argues for a diachronic approach to synchronic gradience which is based on a mismatch between the syntax and the semantics of constructions. Another central claim made in this paper is that syntactic gradience is not confined to morphosyntactic overlap but may be constituted by… read more
