This book explores the semantic and pragmatic mechanisms underlying grammaticalization. Regine Eckardt argues that language change frequently involves a structural reorganization at the phonological, morphological, and syntactic levels. Speakers not only master the structural aspect of such reanalyses, they also-as the author argues-keep a detailed mental record of what has happened to meaning. The author develops semantic reanalysis as the semantic correlate and tracks its effects in meaning change. Several case studies offer new insights in the architecture of conceptual thinking that is part of the human language faculty. Professor Eckardt develops her approach in terms of formal semantic theory. She shows how neatly tailored analyses in truth-conditional compositional semantics can elucidate the structural mechanisms of meaning change. Her exposition is advanced in the context of several in-depth case studies containing data new to historical linguistics.
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1. Introduction ; 2. Meaning Change Under Reanalysis: Previous Views ; 3. Truth Conditional Semantics ; 4. What is Going to Happen ; 5. From Step to Negation: The Development of French Complex Negation Patterns ; 6. From Intensifier to Focus Particle ; 7. To Be or Not To Be a Determiner ; 8. Semantic Reanalysis: The Algebraic Backbone of Meaning Change ; Appendix ; Source Texts by Chapter ; References ; Index
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The book is well written and presents its argumentation with clarity, frequently supported by illustrative examples from different languages...in this book Eckard undoubtedly makes a significant contribution to our understanding of semantic reanalysis, one which serves as a useful complement to other approaches to meaning change in grammaticalization.
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Innovative approach to a central aspect of historical linguistics Links to topics of key current interest including grammaticalization and language evolution Equally accessible to historical linguists and semanticists Includes original case studies containing data new to historical linguistics
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Regine Eckardt is Professor of Linguistics at the University of Göttingen and associate editor of the Journal of Semantics. She is the author of Events, Adverbs and Other Things (1998) and of numerous articles on semantics, pragmatics, and language change, and with Klaus von Heusinger and Christoph Schwarze, editor of Words in Time (2003).
Les mer
Innovative approach to a central aspect of historical linguistics Links to topics of key current interest including grammaticalization and language evolution Equally accessible to historical linguists and semanticists Includes original case studies containing data new to historical linguistics
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Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9780199556472
Publisert
2008
Utgiver
Vendor
Oxford University Press
Vekt
473 gr
Høyde
234 mm
Bredde
157 mm
Dybde
17 mm
Aldersnivå
UU, UP, P, 05, 06
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Heftet
Antall sider
298

Forfatter

Biographical note

Regine Eckardt is Professor of Linguistics at the University of Göttingen and associate editor of the Journal of Semantics. She is the author of Events, Adverbs and Other Things (1998) and of numerous articles on semantics, pragmatics, and language change, and with Klaus von Heusinger and Christoph Schwarze, editor of Words in Time (2003).