Select bibliography english linguistics uni regensburg. As syntax is essentially the structure of a sentence, i believe a syntactic construction is merely a schematic representation of the structure of a sentence as in 11. The history of phrasal verbs university of toronto. A descriptive enquiry into subjectverb concord in english existential constructions takehiro tsuchida digital hollywood university august 1, 2011 introduction subjectverb concord is generally regarded as a fundamental part of english syntax.
Its aim is to assess the degree of variation in the inflection of the participle so as to determine whether or not the change starts in the old english period. In addition, this study shows that unlike with the verbal constructions the toinfinitive with adjectival matrices stabilizes at roughly a 3. Ursula lenker, judith huber, and robert mailhammer eds. Serial verb constructions are often described as coding a single event. For these later periods, finally, it is proposed that the clausal variation may be motivated by lexical determination, discourse. It is a common feature of many african, asian and new guinean languages. A descriptive enquiry into subjectverb concord in english. In particular, i investigate certain differences between verbal and nominal gerunds in comparison with the present participle with respect to what i call here gradience in verbal traits. Event conceptualization in language production of early bilinguals. The goal of this course is to provide learners with skills that allow them to answer questions on irregular forms and strange phenomena of presentday english with historical linguistic knowledge.
Changing textual functions of connecting repositories. The meanings of the modals in presentday american english janua linguarum. Discussion of willem koopmans important analysis of separableparticle phrasal verbs in old english, as well as illustrative of the growth of the prepositional passive in middle english. Historical syntax from obligatory whmovement to optional. The present version is intended primarily for members. Inflectional variation in the old english participle. But where the starting point for the analysis of historical change is the. The third international conference on historical linguistics organized by the institute of english, adam mickiewicll. An introduction jongbok kim and peter sells november 20, 2007 center for the study of language and information. Finiteness, inflection, and the syntax your morphology can. But the question does not ask about constructions that are purely syntactic.
Department of linguistics, university at buffalo, the state university of new york. When we learn our own language as young children, the task ahead of us is to construct the rules of our language on a number of different levels. This readable and positive study brings together many of the resources needed for the exploration of english historical syntax and deals with many of the important changes in english sentence structure from old english to present. These markers develop into markers of stressed ongoingness, which emphasize that the timing of an event is remarkable, either in relation to some temporal reference point or in relation to some other event. The history of english verbal and nominal constructions edited by ursula lenker judith huber. The periphrases we discussed in the previous chapter developed from various syntactic constructions with have and be as full, lexical. Why is the argument schemata represented by 11 more than just a syntactic construction. Nominal vs verbal constructions english language esl. Lexicon and syntax has had as a result the constant. Grammaticalization processes in older english, 187. Current changes in english syntax christian mair and geoffrey leech 1. In pursuit of a theory of the syntax of mmcs, the current paper will offer a revised account for the syntax of auxiliaries based on more recent analyses of the clausal structure 4 palmer finds that english also has quasi auxiliaries such as used to which exhibit some but not all nice properties.
English exocentric compounds victoria university of. Contents 1 some basic properties of english syntax 1. Finiteness, inflection, and the syntax your morphology can afford kristin melum eide norwegian university of science and technology in this paper english and norwegian are compared with respect to a range of syntactic constructions negated clauses, negative inversion, polarity questions, declaratives, subjunctives, whynot constructions and. On the progression of the progressive in early modern english. Meiko matsumoto, from simple verbs to periphrastic. Current changes in english syntax lancaster university. But where the starting point for the analysis of historical change is the study of recorded performance data in their linguistic and social context as, for example, in. The text explains the basics of english syntax while providing students. Edinburgh textbooks on the english language advanced. A historical syntax of english edinburgh university press.
Cognate arguments and the transitivity requirement in the. Applied historical english linguistics wikiversity. David denisons dd henceforth english historical syntax is a most welcome addition to the historical linguistics library in that it fills a didactic. The changes that 1 the historical developments and theoretical issues bearing on the development. Selected papers from the fifteenth international conference on english historical linguistics icehl 15, munich 2430 august 2008. English historical syntax longman linguistics library. T he role of person in the loss of verbal agreement and of prodrop. The syntax of manner quotative constructions in english. This paper is a set of comments on historical syntax papers from a workshop in manchester in 1997. It then proceedswith the basic, theoretical conceptsof generativegrammarfromwhich students can developabilities to think, reason, and analyze english sentences from linguistic points of view. In none of these constructions do we find the adjacency between the whphrase and the verb that is characteristic of canonical whquestions in contemporary. The goal of this course is to provide learners with skills that allow them to answer questions on irregular forms and strange phenomena of. In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content 858language, volume 73, number 4 1997 as with all of chomskys work on the minimalist program, this article is provocative in the best sense of the word, but it is also hard to evaluate in its details since he does not demonstrate the superiority of his proposals over any others in dealing with a set of data. Fischer and others published english historical syntax.
Verbal ing constructions and the development of the english progressive. Pdf lesson plans, teacher articles and a directory of teaching and reference resources. Developments in english historical morphosyntax claudia. Starting with the transitivity requirement hypothesis the direct object counterpart of extended projection p rinciple epp, we examine the development of. He was educated at highgate school and st johns college, cambridge, where he studied mathematics and then anglosaxon, norse and celtic, and he earned his doctorate at lincoln college, oxford. Developments in english historical morphosyntax john benjamins. Note 4 i will substantiate the hypothesis that it is the progressive. The development into markers of stressed ongoingness takes place with the help of. This article argues that despite traditional skepticism among most specialists on the history of english that brythonic celtic languages could have had any significant structural impact on englishs evolution, the source of periphrastic do in cornishs equivalent construction is virtually impossible to deny on the basis of a wide range of evidence. List of papers with brief abstracts amount quantification, referentiality, and long wh movement.
The rise and fall of constructions and the history of english. In the standard language, they are restricted to finite uses yet show no overt agreement morphology. A major weakness of modern historical syntax has been a failure to investigate the causes of reanalysis and a reliance on mere formal ambiguity as an explanation for change. The historical development of composite predicates, phrasal verbs, and related constructions in english. English exocentric compounds laurie bauer victoria university of wellington most compounds in english are endocentric, that is, one of the elements typically the righthand element is the head of the construction. Theoretical issues in historical syntax 2 linguistic theory and the historical creation of english reflexives edward l.
No purely is there, so there is no rationale for excluding specific morphemes from being part of a syntactic construction. Nominal vs verbal constructions originally posted by hune kasprov. Certain expressions resembling serial verb construction are found in english surviving from early modern english, such as lets go eat and come live with me. This paper presents a brief account of english syntax based on the cambridge grammar of the english language, 1 providing an overview of the main constructions and categories in the language. David denisons dd henceforth english historical syntax is a most welcome addition to the historical linguistics library in that it fills a didactic gap and also provides a useful tool to any. It is outside the scope of this tfg to deal with other uses of. It is also true, however, that there are some peculiar cases in which nonconcord somehow seems to be. Brings together many of the resources needed for the exploration of english historical syntax and deals with the important changes in english sentence structure from old english to the present. Historical syntax and linguistic theory edited by paola. Finiteness, inflection, and the syntax your morphology can afford. The book is of primary interest to linguists interested in current research in the history of english syntax. In his book english historical syntax david denison 1993 describes the usage of the progressive in old english as irregular. Designed for beginning graduate students and advanced undergraduates in linguistics, it is also suitable for use in tesolesl programs and in english departments. For a long time, in both the english and german research tradition.
Old english, an early ancestor of modern english, was a germanic language with many of the properties of contemporary german. The history of english verbal and nominal constructions 1 english historical linguistics 2008 selected papers from the fifteenth international conference on english historical linguistics icehl 15, munich, 2430 august 2008 volume 1. Nominal vs verbal constructions if this is your first visit, be sure to check out the faq by clicking the link above. Project muse english historical syntax and morphology. The serial verb construction, also known as verb serialization or verb stacking, is a syntactic phenomenon in which two or more verbs or verb phrases are strung together in a single clause. These verbs, listed by palmer as can, could, dare, may, might, must, need, ought, shall, should, will, and would,4 lack the flexibility exhibited by nonmodal have and be. Introduction syntactic change differs from lexical change in at least two important ways. Review of matsumoto, meiko 2008 from simple verbs to periphrastic expressions. Verbal constructions find, read and cite all the research you need on. First, it generally unfolds much more slowly, sometimes taking hundreds of years to run its course to completion, and secondly, it tends to proceed below the threshold of speakers. Developments in english historical morpho syntax claudia claridge, birte bos spanning the time from old english to modern american english, this volume provides fresh perspectives on core issues and theories in the morphosyntactic history of english nominal, verbal and adverbial constructions.
This article deals with the coexistence of verbal and adjectival inflection in the old english past participle. Historical syntax and linguistic theory arizona state university. In english, the normal syntax would be to have a subject. The article claims that progressive markers may develop out of purely emphatic markers.
English historical linguistics 2008 john benjamins. Theoretical issues in historical syntax 2 linguistic theory and the historical creation of english reflexives. Developments in english historical morphosyntax john. The grammaticalization of progressive constructions with a focus on the english progressive. English exocentric compounds victoria university of wellington. It then proceeds with the basic, theoretical concepts of generative grammar from which students can develop abilities to think, reason, and analyze english sentences from linguistic points of. An introduction to applied historical english linguistics. If you want to learn english grammar or grow your vocabulary then these resources will help you with your studies. In this paper, i examine nominal and verbal ing forms in english and discuss aspects of their historical development. A majority of studies in this book investigate syntactic change in the history of english from this viewpoint using a corpusbased approach, focusing on verbal constructions, modality and developments in the english noun phrase.
It aroused a lot of interest and enthusiasm among linguists and forced the organizers to increase the number ofinvited. This book will be an indispensable textbook on english historical syntax for many years to come. Nevertheless, the use of the latter form increased among literary people who used the. The contributions discuss the loss, rise and restructuring of morphonological marking, periphrastic verbal constructions, auxiliary variation and evolution, as well. The grammaticalization of progressive constructions with a. Some of the new progressive forms developed in modern english, such as the progressive passive, were forbidden by the grammarians. This paper presents the evidence for a rule of object shift in middle and early modern english, and shows what the consequences of the existence of this rule are for a the english pronominal system, b the analysis of scandinavian object shift, c the historical development of english.
Verbal constructions find, read and cite all the research you need on researchgate. From word to discourse is a clear and highly accessible descriptive grammar of english with a strong semantic and discoursefunctional focus. From the rich programme over papers were given during the conference, the present twelve papers were carefully selected to reflect the state of current research in the. Based on the cambridge grammar of the english language. You might shouldnt say that 53 the second class of english auxiliaries, the modals, is unique among related languages. Object movement and verb movement in early modern english. David michael benjamin denison fba born 6 september 1950 is a british linguist whose work focuses on the history of the english language biography. The rise and fall of constructions and the history of.
The syntax of manner quotative constructions in english and dutch. In such constructions, the second verb would normally be regarded as a bare infinitive and can generally be replaced by a full infinitive by the insertion of to before it. Explores the many factors that influenced syntactic change in english aimed at advanced students, this book discusses a number of approaches to charting the. The rise and fall of constructions and the history of english dosupport peter w. Since the publication of goldbergs 1995 seminal book constructions, construction grammar cxg has become increasingly popular and inspired analyses of a wide range of grammatical.
We owe a great deal of intellectual debt to theprevious textbooks and literature on english syntax. Linguistic theory and the historical creation of english reflexives. Spanning the time from old english to modern american english, this volume provides fresh perspectives on core issues and theories in the morphosyntactic history of english nominal, verbal and adverbial constructions. This companion volume to sounds, words, texts and change from the eleventh international conference on english historical linguistics contains twelve papers focusing on morphology and syntax. With light verb constructions from syntax to concepts.
From chapter 6 on, the book discusses major constructions of english within a holistic view. Mar 01, 2004 this companion volume to sounds, words, texts and change from the eleventh international conference on english historical linguistics contains twelve papers focusing on morphology and syntax. It is argued that in both languages these constructions require either an explicitly encoded finiteness feature, or, for the second set of constructions, the explicitly encoded absence of such a feature. Buy english historical syntax longman linguistics library 1 by david denison isbn.
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