Linguistic Cycle : Language Change and the Language Faculty

Gelderen, Elly Van

ISBN 10: 0199756058 / ISBN 13: 9780199756056

Edité par Oxford University Press, 2011

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N° de réf. du vendeur 12672731-n

Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: Linguistic Cycle : Language Change and the Language Faculty
• Éditeur: Oxford University Press
• Date de parution: 2011
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN à 10 chiffres: 0199756058
• ISBN à 13 chiffres: 9780199756056
• Reliure: Couverture rigide
• État de l'article: New

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Synopsis

Elly van Gelderen provides examples of linguistic cycles from a number of languages and language families, along with an account of the linguistic cycle in terms of minimalist economy principles. A cycle involves grammaticalization from lexical to functional category followed by renewal. Some well-known cycles involve negatives, where full negative phrases are reanalyzed as words and affixes and are then renewed by full phrases again. Verbal agreement is another example: full pronouns are reanalyzed as agreement markers and are renewed again. Each chapter provides data on a separate cycle from a myriad of languages. Van Gelderen argues that the cross-linguistic similarities can be seen as Economy Principles present in the initial cognitive system or Universal Grammar. She further claims that some of the cycles can be used to classify a language as analytic or synthetic, and she provides insight into the shape of the earliest human language and how it evolved.

À propos de l?auteur

Elly van Gelderen is Regents' Professor in the Department of English at Arizona State University.