LSTL 43: Development of Language through the Lens of Formal Linguistics

Development of Language through the Lens of Formal Linguistics

P. Karlík (ed.)
Masaryk University

Formal approaches to language are typically associated with synchronic linguistics whereas diachronic linguistics is connected with traditional philological methods. The goal of this book is to demonstrate that formal-linguistic analyses of diachronic language data can not only represent known facts in a new light, but also reveal new facts that have remained hidden to traditional philology. Particular studies, whose authors are linguists from distinguished European and American universities, analyze various phonological, morphological, syntactical and semantic phenomena, in typologically and genetically diverse languages.

Table of Contents

Preface

Strength of Analogy in the System of Indo-European Numerals
Václav Blažek (Masaryk University)

Lenition in Branching Onsets in French and in ALF Dialects
Guylaine Brun-Trigaud, Tobias Scheer (Université de Nice)

Nominal Expressions in Flux: The status of the universal quantifier in Old Bulgarian
Mila Dimitrova-Vulchanova, Giuliana Giusti, Valentin Vulchanov (NTNU – Trondheim / KVAB-VLAC, Università Ca’ Foscari di Venezia)

History of Czech Negative Noun Phrases
Mojmír Dočekal (Masaryk University)

De Declinationibus Disputandum Est
Joseph Emond (University of Vienna, University College, London)

A Case of Linguistic Change: Infinitives as predicatives
Uwe Junghanns, Denisa Lenertová (University of Göttingen, University of Leipzig)

Two Tree Diagrams with Identical Semantic Interpretations: Is it the result of an undecided competition of different syntactic principles?
Petr Karlík (Masaryk University)

Interjection > Pronoun? The History of Czech Expletive on(o)
Roland Meyer (University of Regensburg)

Diachronic Impoverishment of the Auxiliary and Participle Movement in Slavic
Krzysztof Migdalski (University of Wrocław)

Imperative in Compounds: Implications for Historical and Evolutionary Studies
Ljiljana Progovac (Wayne State University)

ISBN 9783895865879 (Hardbound). LINCOM Studies in Theoretical Linguistics 43. 200pp. 2010.