18.3765, Books: Historical Ling/Syntax/Typology: Deutscher

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LINGUIST List: Vol-18-3765. Sun Dec 16 2007. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 18.3765, Books: Historical Ling/Syntax/Typology: Deutscher

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1)
Date: 13-Dec-2007
From: Elyse Turr < elyse.turr at oup.com >
Subject: Syntactic Change in Akkadian: Deutscher

 

	
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Date: Sun, 16 Dec 2007 18:26:43
From: Elyse Turr [elyse.turr at oup.com]
Subject: Syntactic Change in Akkadian: Deutscher
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Title: Syntactic Change in Akkadian 
Subtitle: The Evolution of Sentential Complementation 
Publication Year: 2007 
Publisher: Oxford University Press
	   http://www.oup.com/us
	
Author: Guy Deutscher

Paperback: ISBN:  9780199532223 Pages: 224 Price: U.S. $ 45.00


Abstract:

In this book Guy Deutscher examines the historical
development of Akkadian, the oldest recorded Semitic
language and one of the earliest attested languages. Two
thousand years of texts from 2500BC to 500BC provide a
unique source for the study of linguistic change.

The first two parts of the book present an historical
grammar of sentential complementation. Part one traces the
emergence of new structures, describing how finite
complements first developed, and tracing the
grammaticalization of the quotative construction. Part two
examines the language's functional history. It looks at the
evolution of linguistic structures, showing for example how
finite complements and embedded questions became more
widespread as other parataxis and non-finite complements
receded. In the final part of the book the author puts these
changes in a broader typological perspective and compares
the development of Akkadian to similar processes in other
languages. The emergence of finite complementation may, he
suggests, be an adaptive process, related to the growing
complexity of communication.

This book throws new light on the nature of linguistic
change and offers fresh insights on a language that has
rarely been presented to non-specialists, despite its
enormous historical importance. 



Linguistic Field(s): Historical Linguistics
                     Syntax
                     Typology

Subject Language(s): Akkadian (akk)


Written In: English  (eng)
	
See this book announcement on our website: 
http://linguistlist.org/get-book.html?BookID=33002


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