Syntactic reconstruction and proto-Germanic /
Walkden investigates methods, possibilities, and limitations in the reconstruction of syntax in a framework which holds that the object of enquiry is knowledge of language and which acknowledges that the transmission of that knowledge is discontinuous.
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| Format: | eBook |
| Language: | English |
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Oxford :
Oxford University Press,
2014.
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| Series: | Oxford studies in diachronic and historical linguistics ;
12. |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Connect to the full text of this electronic book |
Table of Contents:
- Cover; Syntactic Reconstruction and Proto-Germanic; Copyright; Contents; Acknowledgements; List of abbreviations; List of figures; List of tables; 1 Introduction; 1.1 Preamble; 1.2 The mythmaker's handbook: a constructivist approach to historical syntax; 1.3 Syntactic framework; 1.4 The Germanic languages; 1.4.1 Gothic; 1.4.2 Old Norse; 1.4.3 Old English; 1.4.4 Old High German; 1.4.5 Old Saxon; 1.4.6 Other sources of evidence; 2 A methodology for syntactic reconstruction; 2.1 Introduction; 2.2 Modelling synchronic syntactic variation; 2.2.1 The structure of syntactic variation
- 2.2.2 The question of free variation2.2.3 Syntactic features; 2.3 Modelling diachronic syntactic variation; 2.3.1 I-language, acquisition, and change; 2.3.2 Mechanisms and causes; 2.3.3 Directionality; 2.3.4 Transmission, diffusion, and language contact; 2.4 Lexical-phonological and syntactic reconstruction: parallels and pitfalls; 2.4.1 Background to the debate; 2.4.2 Establishing correspondences; 2.4.3 Establishing proto-forms; 2.5 Summary; 3 Verb position in early Germanic main clauses; 3.1 Introduction; 3.2 V2 and V3; 3.2.1 V2: the data; 3.2.2 V3; 3.2.3 Analyses of V2 and V3
- 3.2.4 V2 and V3 in Proto-Northwest Germanic3.3 V1; 3.3.1 V1: the data; 3.3.2 Analyses of V1; 3.4 Verb-late and verb-final main clauses; 3.4.1 Verb-late main clauses: the data; 3.4.2 Verb-late main clauses as an unsolved puzzle; 3.4.3 An analysis; 3.4.4 Verb-late in Proto-Northwest Germanic; 3.5 Main clauses in Gothic; 3.6 Chapter summary; 4 The wh-system of early Germanic; 4.1 Introduction; 4.2 Word order in wh-interrogatives; 4.2.1 V2 in wh-interrogatives; 4.2.2 Particles, pronouns, topics, and the fine structure of the left periphery of wh-interrogatives
- 4.2.3 Verb-late order in OE and OS wh-interrogatives4.3 Underspecified *hwat?; 4.3.1 The traditional view; 4.3.2 Problems with the traditional view; 4.3.3 An underspecification analysis; 4.3.4 The diachrony of underspecification; 4.4 Whether; 4.4.1 East Germanic: ƕaþar; 4.4.2 West Germanic: hwæþer, hweđar, hwedar; 4.4.3 North Germanic: hvaðarr, hvárr/hvár/hvárt; 4.4.4 The syntax of Proto-Germanic *hwaþeraz/*hweþeraz; 4.5 Chapter summary; 5 Null arguments in early Germanic; 5.1 Introduction; 5.2 Null arguments across the attested early Germanic languages; 5.2.1 Gothic; 5.2.2 Old Norse
- 5.2.3 Old English5.2.4 Old High German; 5.2.5 Old Saxon; 5.2.6 Summary: distribution of null arguments in early Germanic; 5.3 Analysis of null arguments in early Germanic; 5.3.1 Null arguments conditioned by rich agreement?; 5.3.2 Topic drop?; 5.3.3 Radical null argument languages?; 5.3.4 A partial null argument analysis; 5.3.5 Cross-linguistic reach of the proposal; 5.4 Null arguments across the history of Germanic; 5.4.1 Diachronic trajectories; 5.4.2 The main clause constraint: innovation or retention?; 5.4.3 Proto-Germanic as a null argument language; 6 Conclusion; 6.1 Summary of results