Get fulltext from our e-platform
The Diachronic Typology of Non-Canonical Subjects
This volume is an important contribution to the diachrony of non-canonical subjects in a typological perspective. The questions addressed concern the internal mechanisms and triggers for various changes that non-canonical subjects undergo, ranging from semantic motivations to purely structural explanations. The discussion encompasses the whole life-cycle of non-canonical subjects: from their emergence out of non-subject arguments to their expansion, demise or canonicization, focusing primarily on syntactic changes and changes in case-marking. The volume offers a number of different case studies comprising such languages as Italian, Spanish, Old Norse and Russian as well as languages less studied in this context, such as Latin, Classical Armenian, Baltic languages and some East Caucasian languages. Typological generalizations in the form of recurrent developmental paths are offered on the basis of data presented in this volume and in the literature.
[Studies in Language Companion Series, 140] 2013. xxv, 364 pp.
Publishing status: Available
Published online on 8 November 2013
Published online on 8 November 2013
© John Benjamins Publishing Company
Table of Contents
- List of contributors | pp. vii–viii
- IntroductionIlja A. Seržant, Chiara Fedriani and Leonid Kulikov | pp. ix–xxvi
- Part I. Rise of non-canonical subjects or subject-like obliques
- Non selected dative arguments in Spanish anticausative constructions: Exploring subjecthoodOlga Fernández-Soriano and Amaya Mendikoetxea | pp. 3–34
- The rise of animacy-based differential subject marking in DutchHelen de Hoop | pp. 35–54
- The rise of oblique subjects in RussianHakyung Jung | pp. 55–72
- Non-canonical subject marking: Genitive subjects in Classical ArmenianDaniel Kölligan | pp. 73–90
- The rise of non-canonical subjects and semantic alignments in HindiAnnie Montaut | pp. 91–118
- Part II. Historical changes in constructions with non-canonical subjects or subject-like obliques
- Experiencers and psychological noun predicates: From Latin to ItalianMarina Benedetti | pp. 121–138
- Between Finnic and Indo-European: Variation and change in the Estonian experiencer-object constructionLiina Lindström | pp. 139–162
- On the historical expansion of non-canonically marked ‘subjects’ in SpanishChantal Melis and Marcela Flores | pp. 163–184
- Part III. From non-canonical subjects or subject-like obliques to canonical subjects
- Subjects in ScandinavianJan Terje Faarlund | pp. 187–202
- The me pudet construction in the history of Latin: why and how fast non-canonical subjects come and goChiara Fedriani | pp. 203–230
- Diachrony of experiencer subject marking: Evidence from East CaucasianDmitry Ganenkov | pp. 231–256
- Obliqueness, quasi-subjects and transitivity in Baltic and SlavonicAxel Holvoet | pp. 257–282
- Rise of canonical subjecthoodIlja A. Seržant | pp. 283–310
- Synthesis
- The diachronic typology of non-canonical subjects and subject-like obliquesIlja A. Seržant | pp. 313–360
- Language index | pp. 361–362
- Subject index | pp. 363–364
Cited by (12)
Cited by 12 other publications
Say, Sergey
Korkus, Mari-Liis & Virve-Anneli Vihman
Rodríguez Guerra, Alexandre
Walker, Katherine & Pegah Faghiri
Benedetti, Marina & Chiara Gianollo
2020. Criteria for subjecthood and non-canonical subjects in Classical Greek. In Historical Linguistics 2017 [Current Issues in Linguistic Theory, 350], ► pp. 29 ff.
Barðdal, Jóhanna
2018. Introduction. In Non-canonically case-marked subjects [Studies in Language Companion Series, 200], ► pp. 1 ff.
Viti, Carlotta
2017. Semantic and cognitive factors of argument marking in ancient Indo-European languages. Diachronica 34:3 ► pp. 368 ff.
Seržant, Ilja A.
2015. Categorization and semantics of subject-like obliques. In Subjects in Constructions – Canonical and Non-Canonical [Constructional Approaches to Language, 16], ► pp. 175 ff.
Abraham, Werner & Jadwiga Piskorz
2014. A rare case of covert modality. In Modes of Modality [Studies in Language Companion Series, 149], ► pp. 409 ff.
Holvoet, Axel & Nicole Nau
2014. Argument marking and grammatical relations in Baltic. In Grammatical Relations and their Non-Canonical Encoding in Baltic [Valency, Argument Realization and Grammatical Relations in Baltic, 1], ► pp. 1 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 4 december 2025. 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.