Syntactic Effects of Morphological Change - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0199250685 ISBN 13: 9780199250684

Publisher: OUP Oxford, 2002

Synopsis

This book presents the latest thinking on the nature and causes of language change. The authors consider how far changes in morphology (e.g. inflectional word endings) cause changes in syntax (e.g. word order). They examine such phenomena from the perspective of current syntactic and psycholinguistic theory, in particular addressing the issues raised by the hypothesis that grammatical change is driven by how children acquire language. Theoretical questions are discussed in the context of change in a wide variety of languages over a range of periods. The authors are distinguished scholars from the USA, Canada, Japan, Brazil, Australia, Portugal, Italy, Greece, and the UK.

About this title

About the Author

David W. Lightfoot is Dean of the Graduate School at Georgetown University. Until recently he was Professor of Linguistics and Associate Director of the Neural and Cognitive Science Program at the University of Maryland with a joint appointment as Professor of Linguistics at the University of Reading. His books include Principles of Diachronic Syntax (CUP 1979), The Language Lottery: Toward a Biology of Grammars (MIT Press, 1982), How to Set Parameters: Arguments from Language Change (MIT Press, 1991), and The Development of Language: Acquisition, Change, and Evolution (Blackwell, 1999).

Edition details

• Publisher: OUP Oxford
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0199250685
• ISBN 13: 9780199250684
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 424
• Editor: Lightfoot David W.