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Cover

Diachronic Syntax

Second Edition

Ian Roberts

18 November 2021

ISBN: 9780198861461

752 pages
Paperback
246x171mm

In Stock

Oxford Textbooks in Linguistics

Price: £45.00

This second edition of Diachronic Syntax has been fully revised and updated throughout to cover the multiple developments in the area in the last decade. Written by one of the leading scholars in the field and including a glossary and suggestions for further reading, it will be an ideal textbook for undergraduate students of historical linguistics.

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Description

This second edition of Diachronic Syntax has been fully revised and updated throughout to cover the multiple developments in the area in the last decade. Written by one of the leading scholars in the field and including a glossary and suggestions for further reading, it will be an ideal textbook for undergraduate students of historical linguistics.

  • Explores multiple key questions in historical linguistics
  • Written by one of the leading scholars in the field
  • Draws on examples from a wide range of languages, from Latin and Old English to creoles
  • Offers guidance on further reading and a comprehensive glossary of key terms

New to this edition

  • Fully revised and updated throughout
  • New and extended coverage of null subjects in synchrony and diachrony
  • Explores major recent developments, including in parametric variation, wh-movement, and creoles and creolization

About the Author(s)

Ian Roberts, Professor of Linguistics, University of Cambridge

Ian Roberts is Professor of Linguistics at the University of Cambridge, having previously held positions in Geneva, Bangor, and Stuttgart. He has worked extensively on comparative and historical syntax within the framework of Universal Grammar, with a particular focus on the Germanic, Romance, and Celtic languages. His many books include Agreement and Head Movement (MIT Press 2010), The Wonders of Language, or How to Make Noises and Influence People (CUP 2017), and Parameter Hierarchies and Universal Grammar (OUP 2019; paperback 2021). He is the editor of The Oxford Handbook of Universal Grammar (OUP 2016; paperback 2018).

Table of Contents

    Introduction
    1:Formal comparative and historical syntax
    2:Types of syntactic change?
    3:Acquisition, learnability, and syntactic change
    4:The dynamics of syntactic change
    5:Contact, creoles, and change
    Epilogue
    Glossary
    References
    Index

Reviews

"Review from previous edition 'This work gathers together a wealth of research linking language change to a number of other linguistic areas, and as such is ambitious in its scope. It is a welcome addition to the body of literature on language change.'" - Johanna L. Wood, Folia Linguistica

"'Diachronic syntax will serve as an incentive and inspiration for generative researchers of historical linguistics.'" - Marion Elenbass, Journal of Linguistics

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