1st Edition

Diachronic and Comparative Syntax

By Ian Roberts Copyright 2018
572 Pages
by Routledge

572 Pages
by Routledge

572 Pages
by Routledge

This book brings together for the first time a series of previously published papers featuring Ian Roberts’ pioneering work on diachronic and comparative syntax over the last thirty years in one comprehensive volume. Divided into two parts, the volume engages in recent key topics in empirical studies of syntactic theory, with the eight papers on diachronic syntax addressing major changes in the... Read more



Part I: Diachronic Syntax





1. Agreement Parameters and the Development of English Modal Auxilaries





2. A Computational Approach to Language Learnability and Language Change (with Robin Clark)





3. Object Movement and Verb Movement in Early Modern English





4. Directionality and Word Order Change in the History of English





5. Verb Movement and Markedness





6. Theoretical Consequences (with Anna Roussou)





7. Cascading Parameter Changes: Internally-driven Change in Middle and Early Modern English (with Theresa Biberauer)





Part II: Comparative Syntax





8. Passive Arguments Raised (with Mark Baker & Kyle Johnson)





9. Complex Inversion in French (with Luigi Rizzi)





10. Excorporation and Minimality





11. Two Types of Head Movement in Romance





12. Clause Structure and X-Second (with Anna Carinaletti)





13. The Analysis of VSO Clauses





14. Introduction: Parameters in Minimalist Theory (with Anders Holmberg)





15. Macroparameters and Minimalism: A Programme for Comparative Research



Biography

Ian Roberts is Professor of Linguistics in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Cambridge. His most recent publications include Syntactic Variation in Minimalist Syntax, with Theresa Biberauer, Anders Holmberg and Michelle Sheehan (2010) and Agreement and Head Movement (2010).