34.610, Books: Missing Person: Terenghi

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-34-610. Fri Feb 17 2023. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 34.610, Books: Missing Person: Terenghi

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Date: Fri, 17 Feb 2023 19:01:02
From: Tessa Arneri [lotdissertations-fgw at uva.nl]
Subject: Missing Person: Terenghi

 


Title: Missing Person 
Subtitle: Structure and change in Romance demonstratives 
Series Title: LOT Dissertation Series  

Publication Year: 2023 
Publisher: Netherlands Graduate School of Linguistics / Landelijke (LOT)
	   http://www.lotpublications.nl/
	

Book URL: https://www.lotpublications.nl/missing-person-structure-and-change-in-romance-demonstratives 


Author: Silvia Terenghi

Paperback: ISBN:  9789460934209 Pages: 383 Price: Europe EURO 43


Abstract:

Languages encode deictic information in their demonstrative systems, but
exactly which information is encoded is a matter of variation. The present
dissertation explores this variation, with special attention to Romance
demonstrative systems, and does so from both a synchronic and a diachronic
perspective. 

Synchronically, the focus is on how the attested cross-linguistic differences
can be formalised in featural and, more broadly, syntactic terms. This line of
investigation results in the proposal of a novel internal structure for
demonstrative elements that ties together a lower person-based component and a
higher spatial-based one, overcoming the classical dichotomy between the two
and affording the system a larger empirical coverage. Diachronically, the
focus is on how the inventory of contrastive demonstrative forms changes in
the different (micro-)diachronic stages of a given language, and more
concretely on how it shrinks and why. Interestingly, this change only involves
demonstrative forms, but not other deictic categories (personal pronouns,
possessive forms, etc.).

Based on novel generalisations concerning the patterns of change attested
across Romance demonstratives and on the conclusions drawn from the synchronic
investigations, this work proposes that larger demonstrative systems are
unstable because of their featural complexity. The latter hinges on a bias
towards monotonic derivations, which triggers feature loss and results in a
smaller inventory of demonstrative forms. Additionally, a structural condition
on feature loss is identified (as formalised in the Last in–First out
principle), which accounts for the concrete patterns of reduction and for the
asymmetry between demonstrative systems (unstable) and other indexical systems
(stable).
 



Linguistic Field(s): Syntax


Written In: English  (eng)

See this book announcement on our website: 
http://linguistlist.org/pubs/books/get-book.cfm?BookID=168573




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