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.
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Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9780199877157
Publisert
2020
Utgiver
Vendor
Oxford University Press
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter