Parameters of Morphosyntactic Change [Hardcover]

This 1997 volume of essays addresses the issues of syntactic and morphological change.The contributors to this volume, including many of the leading figures in diachronic generative syntax, address the issue of how to model the phenomena of syntactic and morphological change within recent frameworks, in particular the Minimalist Program. There is a substantial introduction which reviews the development of ideas in generative historical syntax over the last 15 years, and assesses the distinctive properties of the generative position.The contributors to this volume, including many of the leading figures in diachronic generative syntax, address the issue of how to model the phenomena of syntactic and morphological change within recent frameworks, in particular the Minimalist Program. There is a substantial introduction which reviews the development of ideas in generative historical syntax over the last 15 years, and assesses the distinctive properties of the generative position.The relationship between changes in (inflectional) morphology and the consequences of these changes in syntax has been a perennial issue in historical linguistics. The contributors to this volume address the issue of how to model the phenomena of syntactic and morphological change within recent frameworks, including the Minimalist Programme. Topics addressed include the way categories like aspect and mood interact over time with the valency of verbs; the nature of changes in verb placement; the changing division of labor between different types of argument marking--case, word order, clitics, agreement. The volume contains chapters by many of the leading scholars in the field. There is a substantial introduction which reviews the development of ideas in generative historical syntax over the last fifteen years, and assesses the distinctive properties of the generative position. The volume will appeal to those working in theoretical syntax, and also to specialists in the history of German, Frenl#§