1st Edition

Comparative Grammar Critical Concepts in Linguistics

Edited By Ian Roberts
    2560 Pages
    by Routledge

    The study of comparative grammar has long been a concern of linguistic theory. To the extent that, by studying the aspects of grammar which vary, we might arrive at an idea of what does not vary, this study can be seen as one way of studying universals of grammar. Although it has antecedents in the Middle Ages, comparative grammar was not systematically studied until the nineteenth century, and then purely from a historical perspective. In the past forty years, however, two important approaches have emerged: Greenbergian language typology and the Chomskyan programme based on the idea of the interaction of the principles and parameters of universal grammar. In recent years, these two approaches have to a degree converged. Our notion of how grammatical systems vary and our ability to provide detailed, sophisticated analyses of this variation across a range of languages and grammatical phenomena is probably greater than it has been at any time in the past.

    Concentrating on principles-and-parameters theory, this new Routledge Major Work presents a general, detailed and critical overview of what has been achieved. Aside from the first and last volumes, each one is devoted to a particular aspect of grammatical variation which has been identified as underlying important differences among languages. The first volume presents some of the most important work prior to the formulation of the principles-and-parameters approach in approximately 1980, including Greenberg’s seminal early paper on language typology, while the last volume, in addition to considering further aspects of variation, briefly illustrates how the principles-and-parameters approach has been applied to first-language acquisition and syntactic change.

    With comprehensive introductions to each volume, newly written by the editor, which place the collected material in its historical and intellectual context, Comparative Grammar is an essential work of reference and is destined to be valued by linguistics scholars and students as a vital research resource.

    VOLUME ONE: EARLY WORK (PRE-1980)

    Introduction

    1. J. Greenberg (1963) ‘Some universals of grammar with particular reference to the order of meaningful elements’, in J. Greenberg (ed.), Universals of Language (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, pp. 58–90)

    2. J. Hawkins (1980) ‘On implicational and distributional universals of word order’, Journal of Linguistics 16: 193–235

    3. R. Kayne (1975) ‘Clitic placement in the faire-infinitive construction’, in French Syntax (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, pp. 269–342)

    4. L. Rizzi (1982) ‘A restructuring rule’, in Issues in Italian Syntax (Dordrecht: Foris), pp. 1–48

    5. H. den Besten (1977) ‘On the interaction of root transformations and lexical deletive rules’, in W. Abraham (ed.), On the Formal Syntax of the Westgermania (Amsterdam: John Benjamins), pp. 47–132

    6. L. Rizzi (1982) ‘Violations of the Wh island constraint and the subjacency condition’, in Issues in Italian Syntax (Dordrecht: Foris), pp. 49–76

    7. D. Perlmutter and P. Postal (1983) ‘Towards a universal characterization of passivization’, in D. Perlmutter (ed.), Studies in Relational Grammar 1 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press), pp. 3–29

    VOLUME TWO: THE NULL-SUBJECT PARAMETER

    Introduction

    8. L. Rizzi (1982), ‘Negation, Wh-Movement and the Null Subject Parameter’, in Issues in Italian Syntax (Dordrecht: Foris), pp. 117–85

    9. J. McCloskey and K. Hale (1984) ‘On the syntax of person-number inflection in modern Irish’, Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 1: 487–553

    10. C.-T. J. Huang (1984) ‘On the distribution and reference of empty pronouns’, Linguistic Inquiry 15: 531–74

    11. C. Platzack (1987) ‘The Scandinavian languages and the null-subject parameter’, Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 5: 377–403

    12. L. Vanelli, L. Renzi, and P. Benincà (1986) ‘Tipologia dei pronomi soggetto nelle lingue romanze medievali’, trans. Ian Roberts, Quaderni Patavini di Linguistica 5: 49–66 (reprinted in P. Benincà, La variazione sintattica (Bologna: Il Mulino, 1994), pp. 195–213)

    13. L. Rizzi (1986) ‘Null objects in Italian and the theory of pro’, Linguistic Inquiry 17: 501–57

    14. O. Jaeggli and K. Safir (1989) ‘Introduction’, in The Null Subject Parameter (Dordrecht: Kluwer), pp. 1–44

    15. A. Alexiadou and E. Anagnostopoulou (1998) ‘Parametrizing AGR: word order, V-movement and EPP-checking’, Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 16: 491–539

    VOLUME THREE: HEAD-COMPLEMENT ORDER

    Introduction

    16. M. Dryer (1992) ‘The Greenbergian word order correlations’, Language 68: 81–138

    17. H. Koopman (1984) ‘Verbs, lexical properties of verbs and INFL’, in Verb Movement and Universal Grammar (Dordrecht: Foris), pp. 41–103

    18. H. Koopman (1984) ‘Towards a minimal base component’, in Verb Movement and Universal Grammar (Dordrecht: Foris), pp. 105–35

    19. L. Travis (1984) ‘Word order in Germanic languages’, in Parameters and Effects of Word Order Variation (PhD Dissertation, MIT), pp. 108–58

    20. Y.-H. A. Li (1990) ‘Single complementation’, in Order and Constituency in Mandarin Chinese (Dordrecht: Kluwer), pp. 41–66

    21. Y.-H. A. Li (1990) ‘Multiple complementation’, in Order and Constituency in Mandarin Chinese (Dordrecht: Kluwer), pp. 67–116

    22. R. Kayne (1994) ‘Introduction and proposal’, in The Antisymmetry of Syntax (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press), pp. 3–6

    23. R. Kayne (1994) ‘Deriving X-bar theory’, in The Antisymmetry of Syntax (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press), pp. 7–12

    24. R. Kayne (1994) ‘Adjunction’, in The Antisymmetry of Syntax (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press), pp. 15–32

    25. R. Kayne (1994) ‘Word order’, in The Antisymmetry of Syntax (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press), pp. 33–46

    26. R. Kayne (1994) ‘Further consequences’, in The Antisymmetry of Syntax (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press), pp. 46–54

    27. J.-W. Zwart (1997) ‘Dutch as an SVO language’, in Morphosyntax of Verb Movement: A Minimalist Approach to the Syntax of Dutch (Dordrecht: Kluwer), pp. 81–105

    28. J.-W. Zwart (1997) ‘The position of the functional heads in Dutch’, in Morphosyntax of Verb Movement: A Minimalist Approach to the Syntax of Dutch (Dordrecht: Kluwer), pp. 107–54

    29. M. Saito and N. Fukui (1998) ‘Order in phrase structure and movement’, Linguistic Inquiry 29: 439–74

    VOLUME FOUR: WH-MOVEMENT

    Introduction

    30. E. Bach (1971) ‘Questions’, Linguistic Inquiry 2: 153–66

    31. C-T. J. Huang (1981) ‘Move WH in a language without WH Movement’, The Linguistic Review 1: 369–416

    32. J. Aoun and Y.-H. A. Li (1993) ‘Wh-elements in situ: syntax or LF?’, Linguistic Inquiry 24: 199–238

    33. L. Cheng (1991) ‘Wh-movement and clausal typing’, in On the Typology of WH Questions (PhD Dissertation, MIT), pp. 18–51

    34. L. Cheng (1991) ‘Optional and multiple fronting of Wh-words’, in On the Typology of WH Questions (PhD Dissertation, MIT), pp. 52–111

    35. C. Rudin (1988) ‘On multiple questions and multiple WH fronting’, Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 6: 445–502

    36. D. MacDaniel (1989) ‘Partial and multiple wh-movement’, Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 7: 565–605

    37. J. Sabel (2000) ‘Partial Wh-Movement and the typology of Wh-questions’, in U. Lutz, G. Müller and A. von Stechow (eds.), Wh-Scope Marking (Amsterdam: John Benjamins), pp. 409–46

    38. A. Mahajan (2000) ‘Towards a unified treatment of Wh-expletives in Hindi and German’, in U. Lutz, G. Müller and A. von Stechow (eds.), Wh-Scope Marking (Amsterdam: John Benjamins), pp. 317–32

    39. Ž. Boškovic (2002) ‘On multiple Wh-fronting’, Linguistic Inquiry 33: 351–85

    40. A. Rackowski and N. Richards (2005) ‘Phase Edge and Extraction: A Tagalog Case Study’, Linguistic Inquiry 36: 565–99

    VOLUME 5: VERB MOVEMENT

    Introduction

    5.1. V-to-I Movement

    41. J. Emonds (1978) ‘The verbal complex V-V’ in French’, Linguistic Inquiry 9: 151–75

    42. J.-Y Pollock (1989) ‘Verb movement, universal grammar and the structure of IP’ Linguistic Inquiry 20: 365–424

    43. N. Chomsky (1991) ‘Some notes on economy of derivation and representation’, in R. Friedin Freiden (ed.), Principles and Parameters in Comparative Grammar (MIT Press, 1991), pp. 417–54

    5.2. Verb Second

    44. J.-W Zwart (1997) ‘The verb movement asymmetry in Dutch’, in Morphosyntax of Verb Movement: A Minimalist Approach to the Syntax of Dutch (Dordrecht: Kluwer), pp. 191–244

    45. J.-W Zwart (1997) ‘The verb movement asymmetry in Dutch’ ‘Inversion in Dutch’, in Morphosyntax of Verb Movement: A Minimalist Approach to the Syntax of Dutch (Dordrecht: Kluwer), pp. 245–83

    46. S. Vikner and B. Schwartz (1996) ‘The verb always leaves IP in V2 clauses’, in A. Belletti and L. Rizzi (eds.), Parameters and Functional Heads (New York: Oxford University Press), pp. 11–62

    47. G. Müller (2004) ‘Verb-Second as vP-First’, Journal of Comparative Germanic Linguistics 7: 179–234

    5.3. VSO languages

    48. H. Koopman and D. Sportiche (1991) ‘On the position of subjects’, in J. McCloskey (ed.), The Syntax of Verb-initial Languages (Lingua 85, special edition), pp. 211–58

    49. J. McCloskey (1996) ‘On the scope of verb movement in Irish’, Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 14: 47–104

    50. D. Massam (2000) ‘VSO and VOS: aspects of Niuean word order’, in A. Carnie and E. Guilfoyle (eds.), The Syntax of Verb-initial Languages (New York: Oxford University Press), pp. 97–116

    VOLUME SIX: FURTHER ISSUES

    Introduction

    6.1 Further Kinds of Syntactic Variation

    51. M. Baker (1994) ‘Introduction: of parameters and polysynthesis’, in The Polysynthesis Parameter (New York: Oxford University Press), pp. 3–40

    52. M. Baker (1988) ‘Noun incorporation’, in Incorporation: A Theory of Grammatical Function Changing (Chicago: University of Chicago Press), pp. 76–147

    6.2 First-language Acquisition and Syntactic Variation

    53. N. Hyams (1986) ‘The AG/PRO parameter in early grammars’, in Language Acquisition and the Theory of Parameters (Dordrecht: Kluwer), pp. 63–109

    54. D. Poeppel and K. Wexler (1993) ‘The full competence hypothesis of clause structure in early German’, Language 69: 365–424

    55. L. Rizzi (1993/4) ‘Some notes on linguistic theory and language development: the case of root infinitives’, Language Acquisition 3: 371–93

    6.3 Diachronic Syntax

    56. A. Battye and I. Roberts (1995) ‘Introduction’, Clause Structure and Language Change (New York: Oxford University Press), pp. ???–???

    57. A. Kroch (1989) ‘Reflexes of grammar in patterns of language change’, Language Variation and Change 1: 199–244