New Book: Detges & Waltereit: The Pardox of Language Change

[Paul Peranteau]

This work is of relevance to the list:


The Paradox of Grammatical Change


Perspectives from Romance

Cover image


Edited by Ulrich Detges and Richard Waltereit
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München / Newcastle University

<http://www.benjamins.com/cgi-bin/t_seriesview.cgi?series=CILT>Current 
Issues in Linguistic Theory 293

2008. vi, 252 pp.
This book is Available

Hardbound
ISBN 978 90 272 4808 4
EUR 110.00 / USD 165.00
<http://www.benjamins.com/cgi-bin/cart.cgi?t=u&copies=1&edition=0&bookid=CILT%20293>
[]

Recent years have seen intense debates between formal (generative) 
and functional linguists, particularly with respect to the relation 
between grammar and usage. This debate is directly relevant to 
diachronic linguistics, where one and the same phenomenon of language 
change can be explained from various theoretical perspectives. In 
this, a close look at the divergent and/or convergent evolution of a 
richly documented language family such as Romance promises to be 
useful. The basic problem for any approach to language change is what 
Eugenio Coseriu has termed the paradox of change: if synchronically, 
languages can be viewed as perfectly running systems, then there is 
no reason why they should change in the first place. And yet, as 
everyone knows, languages are changing constantly. In nine case 
studies, a number of renowned scholars of Romance linguistics address 
the explanation of grammatical change either within a broadly 
generative or a functional framework.


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Table of contents

Introduction
Ulrich Detges and Richard Waltereit
1–12
<http://www.benjamins.com/cgi-bin/t_articles.cgi?bookid=CILT%20293&artid=576114091>Syntactic 
change from within and from without syntax: A usage-based analysis
Richard Waltereit and Ulrich Detges
13–30
<http://www.benjamins.com/cgi-bin/t_articles.cgi?bookid=CILT%20293&artid=699114092>On 
explaining the rise of 
c'est<http://www.benjamins.com/cgi-bin/t_articles.cgi?bookid=CILT%20293&artid=699114092>-clefts 
in French
Andreas Dufter
31–56
<http://www.benjamins.com/cgi-bin/t_articles.cgi?bookid=CILT%20293&artid=419114093>The 
role of the plural system in Romance
Elisabeth Stark
57–84
<http://www.benjamins.com/cgi-bin/t_articles.cgi?bookid=CILT%20293&artid=139114094>Morphological 
developments affecting syntactic change
Maria Goldbach
85–106
<http://www.benjamins.com/cgi-bin/t_articles.cgi?bookid=CILT%20293&artid=967114095>Grammaticalisation 
within the IP-domain
Susann Fischer
107–126
<http://www.benjamins.com/cgi-bin/t_articles.cgi?bookid=CILT%20293&artid=559114096>Imperfect 
systems and diachronic change
Giampaolo Salvi
127–146
<http://www.benjamins.com/cgi-bin/t_articles.cgi?bookid=CILT%20293&artid=279114097>From 
temporal to modal: Divergent fates of the Latin synthetic pluperfect 
in Spanish and Portuguese
Martin Becker
147–180
<http://www.benjamins.com/cgi-bin/t_articles.cgi?bookid=CILT%20293&artid=542114098>Non-lexical 
core-arguments in Basque, Romance and German: How (and why) Spanish 
syntax is shifting towards clausal headmarking and morphological 
cross-reference
Hans-Ingo Radatz
181–214
<http://www.benjamins.com/cgi-bin/t_articles.cgi?bookid=CILT%20293&artid=682114099>Towards 
a comprehensive view of language change: Three recent evolutionary approaches
Esme Winter-Froemel
215–250
Subject Index
251–252


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