Articles liés à Historical Change in Serial Verb Constructions
Synopsis
This work examines both historical and comparative evidence in documenting the sweep of diachronic change in the context of serial verb constructions. Using a wide range of data from languages of West Africa, Asia and the Caribbean, it demonstrates how shifts in meaning and usage result in syntactic, morphological and lexical change. The process by which verbs lose lexical semantic content and develop case-marking functions is described; it is argued that the change is directional, from verb to preposition (or postposition) to affix, along a grammaticalization continuum. This same grammaticalization process is shown to result in the development of complementizers, adverbial subordinators, conjunctions, adverbs and auxiliaries from verbs. Strong parallels across languages are found in the meanings of the verbs that become “defective” and in the functions they come to mark. The changes are documented in detail, with examples from a number of languages illustrating the effect of the changes on typology and word order, implications for the encoding of definiteness and aspect, and the relevance of notions such as discourse topic, foreground and transitivity. With respect to theoretical assumptions and terminology, the author has taken a relatively nonpartisan approach, and the discussion is accessible to students of language as well as of interest to theoreticians.
Les informations fournies dans la section « Synopsis » peuvent faire référence à une autre édition de ce titre.
Présentation de l'éditeur
This work examines both historical and comparative evidence in documenting the sweep of diachronic change in the context of serial verb constructions. Using a wide range of data from languages of West Africa, Asia and the Caribbean, it demonstrates how shifts in meaning and usage result in syntactic, morphological and lexical change. The process by which verbs lose lexical semantic content and develop case-marking functions is described; it is argued that the change is directional, from verb to preposition (or postposition) to affix, along a grammaticalization continuum. This same grammaticalization process is shown to result in the development of complementizers, adverbial subordinators, conjunctions, adverbs and auxiliaries from verbs. Strong parallels across languages are found in the meanings of the verbs that become “defective” and in the functions they come to mark. The changes are documented in detail, with examples from a number of languages illustrating the effect of the changes on typology and word order, implications for the encoding of definiteness and aspect, and the relevance of notions such as discourse topic, foreground and transitivity. With respect to theoretical assumptions and terminology, the author has taken a relatively nonpartisan approach, and the discussion is accessible to students of language as well as of interest to theoreticians.
Les informations fournies dans la section « A propos du livre » peuvent faire référence à une autre édition de ce titre.
Acheter neuf
Afficher cet article
EUR 119,92
EUR 28,82 expédition depuis Royaume-Uni vers Etats-Unis
Destinations, frais et délaisAutres éditions populaires du même titre
Résultats de recherche pour Historical Change in Serial Verb Constructions
Image d'archives
Historical Change in Serial Verb Constructions.
Vendeur : Revaluation Books, Exeter, Royaume-Uni
Évaluation du vendeur 5 sur 5 étoiles
Hardcover. Etat : Brand New. 281 pages. In Stock. N° de réf. du vendeur __9027229139
Quantité disponible : 1 disponible(s)