Continuity and Change in Grammar (Linguistik Aktuell Linguistics Today)

369 Pages·2010·7.13 MB·English

by  Anne Breitbarth

Continuity and Change in Grammar
Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today (LA)
Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today (LA) provides a platform for original monograph
studies into synchronic and diachronic linguistics. Studies in LA confront empirical
and theoretical problems as these are currently discussed in syntax, semantics,
morphology, phonology, and systematic pragmatics with the aim to establish robust
empirical generalizations within a universalistic perspective.
General Editors
Werner Abraham Elly van Gelderen
University of Vienna / Arizona State University
Rijksuniversiteit Groningen
Advisory Editorial Board
Josef Bayer Christer Platzack
University of Konstanz University of Lund
Cedric Boeckx Ian Roberts
ICREA/Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona University of Cambridge
Guglielmo Cinque Lisa deMena Travis
University of Venice McGill University
Liliane Haegeman Sten Vikner
University of Ghent University of Aarhus
Hubert Haider C. Jan-Wouter Zwart
University of Salzburg University of Groningen
Terje Lohndal
University of Maryland
Volume 159
Continuity and Change in Grammar
Edited by Anne Breitbarth, Christopher Lucas, Sheila Watts and David Willis
Continuity and Change
in Grammar
Edited by
Anne Breitbarth
Ghent University
Christopher Lucas
Sheila Watts
David Willis
University of Cambridge
John Benjamins Publishing Company
Amsterdam / Philadelphia
TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
8
American National Standard for Information Sciences – Permanence of
Paper for Printed Library Materials, ansi z39.48-1984.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Continuity and change in grammar / edited by Anne Breitbarth...[et al.].
p. cm. (Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today, issn 0166-0829 ; v. 159)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Language and languages--Variation. 2. Grammar, Comparative and general. 3. Socio-
linguistics. I. Breitbarth, Anne, 1976-
P120.V37C667 2010
417’.2--dc22 2010014516
isbn 978 90 272 5542 6 (Hb ; alk. paper)
isbn 978 90 272 8807 3 (Eb)
© 2010 – John Benjamins B.V.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any
other means, without written permission from the publisher.
John Benjamins Publishing Co. · P.O. Box 36224 · 1020 me Amsterdam · The Netherlands
John Benjamins North America · P.O. Box 27519 · Philadelphia pa 19118-0519 · usa
Table of contents
List of contributors vii
Introduction: Continuity and change in grammar 1
Anne Breitbarth, Christopher Lucas, Sheila Watts & David Willis
part i. Continuity
What changed where? A plea for the re-evaluation of dialectal evidence 13
Katrin Axel & Helmut Weiß
Impossible changes and impossible borrowings:
The Final-over-Final Constraint 35
Theresa Biberauer, Michelle Sheehan & Glenda Newton
Continuity is change: The long tail of Jespersen’s cycle in Flemish 61
Anne Breitbarth & Liliane Haegeman
Using the Matrix Language Frame model to measure the extent of
word-order convergence in Welsh–English bilingual speech 77
Peredur Davies & Margaret Deuchar
On language contact as an inhibitor of language change:
The Spanish of Catalan bilinguals in Majorca 97
Andrés Enrique-Arias
Towards notions of comparative continuity in English and French 119
Remus Gergel
Variation, continuity and contact in Middle Norwegian
and Middle Low German 145
John D. Sundquist
part ii. Change
Directionality in word-order change in Austronesian languages 169
Edith Aldridge
Negative co-ordination in the history of English 181
Richard Ingham
vi Continuity and Change in Grammar
Formal features and the development of the Spanish D-system 201
Masataka Ishikawa
The rise of OV word order in Irish verbal-noun clauses 225
Elliott Lash
The great siSwati locative shift 249
Lutz Marten
The impact of failed changes 269
Gertjan Postma
A case of degrammaticalization in northern Swedish 303
Henrik Rosenkvist
Jespersen’s Cycle in German from the phonological perspective
of syllable and word languages 321
Renata Szczepaniak
An article on the rise: Contact-induced change and the rise
and fall of N-to-D movement 335
Mila Dimitrova-Vulchanova & Valentin Vulchanov
Language index 355
Subject index 357
List of contributors
Edith Aldridge Margaret Deuchar
Department of Linguistics The Department of Linguistics &
University of Washington English Language
A210 Padelford Hall University of Wales
Box 354340 Bangor
Seattle, WA 98195-4340 Gwynedd
USA LL57 2DG
[email protected] UK
[email protected]
Katrin Axel
Universiteit Göttingen Andrés Enrique-Arias
Seminar für Deutsche Philologie Universitat de les Illes Balears
Jacob-Grimm-Haus Departament de Filologia Espanyola,
Käte-Hamburger-Weg 3 Moderna i Llatina
D-37073 Göttingen Edifici Ramon Llull
Germany Cra de Valldemossa Km 7,5
[email protected] E-07122 Palma (Balears)
Spain
Theresa Biberauer [email protected]
Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages
Remus Gergel
University of Cambridge
Descriptive & Theoretical Linguistics
Sidgwick Avenue
English Department
Cambridge
University of Tübingen
CB3 9DA
Wilhelmstr. 50, R. 407
UK
D-72074 Tübingen
[email protected]
Germany
[email protected]
Anne Breitbarth
Universiteit Gent Liliane Haegeman
Vakgroep Engels Universiteit Gent
Rozier 44 Vakgroep Engels
9000 Ghent Rozier 44
Belgium 9000 Ghent
[email protected] Belgium
[email protected]
Peredur Davies
The Department of Linguistics & English Richard Ingham
Language The School of English
University of Wales Birmingham City University
Bangor City North Campus
Gwynedd Perry Barr
LL57 2DG Birmingham
UK B42 2SU
[email protected] [email protected]
viii Continuity and Change in Grammar
Masataka Ishikawa Michelle Sheehan
Sogokagakubu School of English Literature, Language and
Hiroshima University Linguistics
Kagamiyama 1-7-1 Percy Building
Japan 739-8521 University of Newcastle upon Tyne
[email protected] Newcastle upon Tyne
NE1 7RU
Elliott Lash UK
Faculty of Modern and Medieval [email protected]
Languages
University of Cambridge John Sunquist
Sidgwick Avenue Department of Foreign Languages
Cambridge 640 Oval Drive
CB3 9DA Stanley Coulter 170
UK West Lafayette, IN 47907
[email protected] USA
[email protected]
Lutz Marten
Renata Szczepaniak
Department of Africa
Institut für Germanistik I
School of Oriental and African Studies
Von-Melle-Park 6
Thornhaugh Street
20146 Hamburg
Russell Square
Germany
London WC1H 0XG
[email protected]
UK
[email protected]
Valentin Vulchanov
Institutt for moderne fremmedspråk
Glenda Newton
NTNU
Faculty of Modern and Medieval
7491 Trondheim
Languages
Norway
University of Cambridge
[email protected]
Sidgwick Avenue
Cambridge
Mila Vulchanova
CB3 9DA
Institutt for moderne fremmedspråk
UK
NTNU
[email protected]
7491 Trondheim
Norway
Gertjan Postma [email protected]
Meertens Instituut
Postbus 94264 Helmut Weiß
1090 GG Amsterdam Institut für Kognitive Linguistik
[email protected] Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität
Grüneburgplatz 1 (Fach 161)
Henrik Rosenkvist 60629 Frankfurt a. M. (Briefe)
Centre for Language and Literature 60323 Frankfurt a. M. (Pakete)
Lund University Germany
Box 201 [email protected]
221 00 Lund
Sweden
[email protected]
Introduction
Continuity and change in grammar
Anne Breitbarth, Christopher Lucas,
Sheila Watts & David Willis
Ghent University/University of Cambridge
The present volume brings together 16 contributions selected from papers presented
at the conference on Continuity and Change in Grammar that took place at the Uni-
versity of Cambridge 18–20 March 2008. The aim of the conference was to foster an
exchange of ideas on various aspects of linguistic transmission in different frameworks
(e.g. generative vs. functionalist) in order to enhance our understanding of what makes
languages change and what in turn prevents them from changing. This volume is par-
ticularly timely, as there has been much interest recently in the topic of continuity,
beginning with the publication of Longobardi’s (2001) and Keenan’s (2002) articles on
‘inertia’ as a principle of, or rather, a constraint on language change.
1. Approaches to continuity and change
In addressing change and continuity, different views can be taken as to what constitutes
a ‘change’. From the point of view of the ‘Inertia Principle’, syntactic change should, in
principle, always be reducible to the categorial or structural reanalysis of lexical items
following changes in phonology or lexical semantics (plus, presumably, language-ex-
ternal factors, such as contact):
Syntactic change should not arise, unless it can be shown to be caused – that
is, to be a well-motivated consequence of other types of change (phonological
changes and semantic changes, including the appearance/disappearance of
whole lexical items) or, recursively, of other syntactic changes, given a plausible
theory of Universal Grammar (UG) and language acquisition.
(Longobardi 2001: 278)
This kind of perspective sees the very existence of syntactic change as conflicting with
an ideal model of a ‘perfect’ syntactic component which is replicated identically by
each successive generation. Thus, in applications of Longobardi’s theory, it is not the
functional structure of the clause that changes, but the filling of the terminal nodes –
by reanalyses of material subject to phonological and semantic change.