The Linguistic Cycle: Language Change and the Language Faculty

by Elly van Gelderen

Elly van Gelderen provides examples of linguistic cycles from a number of languages and language families, along with an account of the linguistic cycle in terms of minimalist economy principles. A cycle involves grammaticalization from lexical to functional category followed by renewal. Some well-known cycles involve negatives, where full negative phrases are reanalyzed as words and affixes and are then renewed by full phrases again. Verbal agreement...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 019975604X
• ISBN13: 9780199756049
• Release Date: April 2011
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Length: 464 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.1" x 9.1"