The Diachrony of Ditransitives
The Diachrony of Ditransitives

Author: Chiara Fedriani

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2020-10-26

Total Pages: 327

ISBN-13: 3110701375

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

While ample studies exist on ditransitives in various languages, notably from a typological perspective, more work needs to be done on identifying the main processes and factors that trigger and constrain the changes they undergo over time. The goal of this volume is to help fill this gap by bringing together data and information on individual languages that have thus far been left out of the discussion and by expanding our knowledge of already studied linguistic traditions so as to achieve a broader diachronic description. Since one of the distinctive features of ditransitives is their synchronic variability in terms of structural alternation and alignment split, diachronic research can throw up new insights into developmental dynamics that are eminently complementary; namely, on the one hand, the emergence, development and loss of construction alternation and, on the other, the acquisition of new functions over time. The analyses offered in the book yield different and interconnected answers to the general question of how ditransitives change by drawing on different functional principles that play a role in the diachronic reorganization of this dynamic domain and by providing a number of original theoretical suggestions.

The Diachrony of Ditransitives in Late Modern Swedish
The Diachrony of Ditransitives in Late Modern Swedish

Author: Fredrik Valdeson

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2024-06-14

Total Pages: 327

ISBN-13: 900468641X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book presents the first major study of ditransitives in Swedish. Using a combination of well-established and innovative corpus-based methods, the book reveals considerable changes in the constructional behaviour of ditransitive verbs over the course of the last 200 years. The key finding is that the use of the so-called double object construction has decreased dramatically in terms of frequency, lexical richness and semantic range. This development is parallelled by a decisive increase in prepositional object constructions. The results are of high relevance to the ongoing debate within construction grammar on constructional productivity and on the nature of horizontal links.

The Diachrony of Ditransitives
The Diachrony of Ditransitives

Author: Chiara Fedriani

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter

Published: 2020

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9783110701272

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This volume contributes to the discussion on the diachronic evolution of ditransitive verbs and constructions by exploring the directions in which they develop, primarily from a semantic and syntactic point of view but also in terms of alignment alt

The Diachrony of Verb Meaning
The Diachrony of Verb Meaning

Author: Elly van Gelderen

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2018-02-01

Total Pages: 316

ISBN-13: 1351719025

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This innovative volume offers a comprehensive account of the study of language change in verb meaning in the history of the English language. Integrating both the author’s previous body of work and new research, the book explores the complex dynamic between linguistic structures, morphosyntactic and semantics, and the conceptual domain of meaning, employing a consistent theoretical treatment for analyzing different classes of predicates. Building on this analysis, each chapter connects the implications of these findings from diachronic change with data from language acquisition, offering a unique perspective on the faculty of language and the cognitive system. In bringing together a unique combination of theoretical approaches to provide an in-depth analysis of the history of diachronic change in verb meaning, this book is a key resource to researchers in historical linguistics, theoretical linguistics, psycholinguistics, language acquisition, and the history of English.

Ditransitives in Germanic Languages
Ditransitives in Germanic Languages

Author: Eva Zehentner

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company

Published: 2023-08-15

Total Pages: 454

ISBN-13: 9027249717

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This volume brings together twelve empirical studies on ditransitive constructions in Germanic languages and their varieties, past and present. Specifically, the volume includes contributions on a wide variety of Germanic languages, including English, Dutch, and German, but also Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian, as well as lesser-studied ones such as Faroese. While the first part of the volume focuses on diachronic aspects, the second part showcases a variety of synchronic aspects relating to ditransitive patterns. Methodologically, the volume covers both experimental and corpus-based studies. Questions addressed by the papers in the volume are, among others, issues like the cross-linguistic pervasiveness and cognitive reality of factors involved in the choice between different ditransitive constructions, or differences and similarities in the diachronic development of ditransitives. The volume’s broad scope and comparative perspective offers comprehensive insights into well-known phenomena and furthers our understanding of variation across languages of the same family.

Nodes and Networks in Diachronic Construction Grammar
Nodes and Networks in Diachronic Construction Grammar

Author: Lotte Sommerer

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company

Published: 2020-05-15

Total Pages: 363

ISBN-13: 9027261296

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This volume brings together ten contributions by leading experts who present their current usage-based research in Diachronic Construction Grammar. All papers contribute to the discussion of how to conceptualize constructional networks best and how to model changes in the constructicon, as for example node creation or loss, node-external reconfiguration of the network or in/decrease in productivity and schematicity. The authors discuss the theoretical status of allostructions, homostructions, constructional families and constructional paradigms. The terminological distinction between constructionalization and constructional change is revisited. It is shown how constructional competition but also general cognitive abilities like analogical thinking and schematization relate to the structure and reorganization of the constructional network. Most contributions focus on the nature of vertical and horizontal links. Finally, contributions to the volume also discuss how existing network models should be enriched or reconceptualized in order to integrate theoretical, psychological and neurological aspects missing so far.

Competition in Language Change
Competition in Language Change

Author: Eva Zehentner

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2019-06-17

Total Pages: 496

ISBN-13: 311063385X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book addresses one of the most pervasive questions in historical linguistics – why variation becomes stable rather than being eliminated – by revisiting the so far neglected history of the English dative alternation. The alternation between a nominal and a prepositional ditransitive pattern (John gave Mary a book vs. John gave a book to Mary) emerged in Middle English and is closely connected to broader changes at that time. Accordingly, the main quantitative investigation focuses on ditransitive patterns in the Penn-Helsinki Parsed Corpus of Middle English; in addition, the book employs an Evolutionary Game Theory model. The results are approached from an ‘evolutionary construction grammar’ perspective, combining evolutionary thinking with diachronic constructionist notions, and the alternation’s emergence is interpreted as a story of constructional innovation, competition, cooperation and co-evolution. The book not only provides a thorough and detailed analysis of the history of one of the most-discussed syntactic phenomena in English, but by fusing two frameworks and employing two different methodologies also presents a highly innovative approach to a problem of relevance to historical linguistics in general.

Transitivity, Valency, and Voice
Transitivity, Valency, and Voice

Author: Denis Creissels

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2024-10-29

Total Pages: 849

ISBN-13: 0198899580

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book sets up a consistent theoretical and terminological framework for the study of the phenomena that are commonly subsumed under the terms transitivity, valency, and voice. These three concepts are at the heart of the most basic aspects of clausal structure in any language; however, there is considerable cross-linguistic variation in the constraints on how verbs combine with noun phrases that refer to participants in the event that they denote or to the circumstances of the event. In this book, Denis Creissels explores and accounts for the extent of this cross-linguistic variation, capturing its regularities and examining the historical phenomena that have resulted in the emergence of constructions and markers. The novel framework developed in the book allows similar phenomena to be identified across typologically diverse languages, and facilitates systematic comparison of the manifestations of these phenomena in the grammars of individual languages.

Diachronic Construction Grammar
Diachronic Construction Grammar

Author: Jóhanna Barðdal

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company

Published: 2015-07-15

Total Pages: 276

ISBN-13: 9027268614

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Construction Grammar as a framework offers a new perspective on traditional historical questions in diachronic linguistics and language change: how do new constructions arise, how should competition in diachronic variation be accounted for, how do constructions fall into disuse, and how do constructions change in general, formally and/or semantically, and with what implications for the language system as a whole? This volume offers a broad introduction to the confluence of Construction Grammar and historical syntax, and also detailed case studies of various instances of syntactic change modeled within Construction Grammar. The volume demonstrates that Construction Grammar as a theory is particularly well suited for modeling historical changes in morphosyntax, and it also documents challenging new phenomena that require a theoretical account within any competing framework of syntactic change.

Researching Metaphors
Researching Metaphors

Author: Michele Prandi

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2022-09-07

Total Pages: 272

ISBN-13: 1000606414

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This collection advocates for a more holistic picture of metaphor, extending the field’s focus beyond the cognitive paradigm and conventional metaphorical concepts to illustrate the possibilities afforded by the study of living metaphors. The volume brings together a diverse range of researchers in the discipline towards critically examining the presuppositions of the cognitive approach. The book shines a light on living metaphors – creative interpretations of conflictual meaning specific to a text or communicative act with their own unique functions – to throw into relief long-held tenets in existing metaphor research. Chapters reflect on the notion that creative metaphors spring from independent sources, not merely from metaphorical concepts, and the subsequent implications for our understanding of the relationship between linguistic forms and conceptual structures and the role of creative metaphors in organizing thought and action. Taken together, the book offers a complementary vision of languages and figures which integrates disparate lines of study within the cognitive paradigm with alternative perspectives for a more comprehensive portrait of metaphors. This book will be of interest to students and scholars interested in the study of metaphor, including such disciplines as theoretical linguistics, cognitive linguistics, semantics, literary studies, and philosophy of language.