Grammatical Change Origins, Nature, Outcomes [Hardcover]

This book advances research on grammatical change and shows the breadth and liveliness of the field. Leading international scholars report and reflect on the latest research into the nature and outcomes of all aspects of syntactic change including grammaticalization, variation, complementation, syntactic movement, determiner-phrase syntax, pronominal systems, case systems, negation, and alignment. The authors deploy a variety of generative frameworks, including minimalist and optimality theoretic, and bring these to bear on a wide range of languages: among the latter are typologically distinct examples from Germanic, Romance, Slavic, Greek, Korean and Japanese, Austronesian, Celtic, and Nahuatl. They draw on sociolinguistic evidence where appropriate. Taken as a whole, the volume provides a stimulating overview of key current issues in the investigation of the origins, nature, and outcome of syntactic change.

1. Introduction,John Whitman, Dianne Jonas, and Andrew Garrett
Part 1: Grammaticalization and Directionality of Change
2. Grammaticalization as Optimization,Paul Kiparsky
3. The Historical Syntax Problem: Reanalysis and Directionality,Andrew Garrett
4. Grammaticalization ofserandestarin Romance,Montse Batllori and Francesc Roca
5. A Minimalist Approach to Jespersen's Cycle in Welsh,David Willis
Part 2: Change in the Nominal Domain: Internal and External Factors
6. A New Perspective on the Historical Development of English Intensifiers and Reflexives,Uffe Bergeton and Roumyana Pancheva
7. Language Contact and Linguistic Complexity - The Rise of the Reflexive Pronounzichin a 15th Century Netherlands' Border Dialect,Gertjan Postma
8. An Article Evolving: The Case of Old Bulgarian,Mila Dimitrova-Vulchanova and Valentin Vulchanov
9. Parametric Changes in the History of the Greek Article,ChristinlSÊ