19.3266, Books: Historical Linguistics: Allen

Tue Oct 28 18:52:45 UTC 2008

LINGUIST List: Vol-19-3266. Tue Oct 28 2008. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 19.3266, Books: Historical Linguistics: Allen

Moderators: Anthony Aristar, Eastern Michigan U <aristar at linguistlist.org>
            Helen Aristar-Dry, Eastern Michigan U <hdry at linguistlist.org>

Reviews: Randall Eggert, U of Utah  
         <reviews at linguistlist.org> 

Homepage: http://linguistlist.org/

The LINGUIST List is funded by Eastern Michigan University, 
and donations from subscribers and publishers.

Editor for this issue: Hannah Morales <hannah at linguistlist.org>
================================================================  

Links to the websites of all LINGUIST's supporting publishers
are available at the end of this issue. 

===========================Directory==============================  

1)
Date: 28-Oct-2008
From: Jennifer Clark < jennifer.clark at oup.com >
Subject: Genitives in Early English: Allen

-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Tue, 28 Oct 2008 14:51:19
From: Jennifer Clark [jennifer.clark at oup.com]
Subject: Genitives in Early English: Allen

E-mail this message to a friend:
http://linguistlist.org/issues/emailmessage/verification.cfm?iss=19-3266.html&submissionid=194889&topicid=2&msgnumber=1

Title: Genitives in Early English 
Subtitle: Typology and Evidence 
Publication Year: 2008 
Publisher: Oxford University Press
	   http://www.oup.com/us

Book URL: http://www.oup.com/uk/catalogue/?ci=9780199216680 

Author: Cynthia L. Allen

Hardback: ISBN:  9780199216680 Pages: 368 Price: U.K. £ 60.00

Abstract:

This book examines the evidence for the development of adnominal genitives
(the knight's sword, the nun's priest's tale, etc.) in English. During the
Middle English period the genitive inflection -es developed into the more
clitic-like 's, but how, when, why, and over how long a time are unclear,
and have been subject to considerable research and discussion. Cynthia L.
Allen draws together her own and others' findings in areas such as case
marking, the nature of syntactic and morphological change, and the role of
processing and pragmatics in the construction of grammars and grammatical
change. 

Using evidence derived from a systematic examination of a wide range of
texts, Dr Allen reviews the evidence for the nature of the possessive
inflection in earlier stages of English and the relationship of the -es
possessive to the 'his genitive. In doing so she shows that Middle English
texts are more reliable witnesses to the grammar of Middle English than has
sometimes been assumed. The texts may have been conservative, but their
language, the author argues, is reasonable reflection of the spoken
language, and where the written evidence runs counter to typological
generalization about syntactic change it may be the latter, not the former,
which is in need of qualification. While the book focuses on Middle English
it also contains discussions of linguistic change before and since, and
draws on comparative evidence from other languages, particularly Germanic
languages such as Swedish and Dutch. This ground-breaking book will be of
great interest to scholars and students of Middle English in particular and
the history of English in general. 

Linguistic Field(s): Historical Linguistics

Subject Language(s): Middle English (enm)

Written In: English  (eng)

See this book announcement on our website: 
http://linguistlist.org/get-book.html?BookID=37679

MAJOR SUPPORTERS

	Brill          
		http://www.brill.nl	

	Cambridge Scholars Publishing          
		http://www.c-s-p.org	

	Cambridge University Press          
		http://us.cambridge.org	

	Cascadilla Press          
		http://www.cascadilla.com/	

	Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd          
		http://www.continuumbooks.com	

	Edinburgh University Press          
		http://www.eup.ed.ac.uk/	

	Elsevier Ltd          
		http://www.elsevier.com/linguistics	

	Emerald Group Publishing Limited          
		http://www.emeraldinsight.com/	

	Equinox Publishing Ltd          
		http://www.equinoxpub.com/	

	European Language Resources Association - ELRA          
		http://www.elra.info.	

	Georgetown University Press          
		http://www.press.georgetown.edu	

	Hodder Education          
		http://www.hoddereducation.co.uk	

	John Benjamins          
		http://www.benjamins.com/	

	Lincom GmbH          
		http://www.lincom.eu	

	MIT Press          
		http://mitpress.mit.edu/	

	Mouton de Gruyter          
		http://www.mouton-publishers.com	

	Multilingual Matters          
		http://www.multilingual-matters.com/	

	Narr Francke Attempto Verlag GmbH + Co. KG          
		http://www.narr.de/	

	Oxford University Press          
		http://www.oup.com/us	

	Pagijong Press          
		http://pjbook.com	

	Palgrave Macmillan          
		http://www.palgrave.com	

	Peter Lang AG          
		http://www.peterlang.com	

	Rodopi          
		http://www.rodopi.nl/	

	Routledge (Taylor and Francis)          
		http://www.routledge.com/	

	Springer          
		http://www.springer.com	

	Wiley-Blackwell          
		http://www.blackwellpublishing.com	

OTHER SUPPORTING PUBLISHERS	

	Association of Editors of the Journal of Portuguese Linguistics
		http://www.fl.ul.pt/revistas/JPL/JPLweb.htm 

	Graduate Linguistic Students' Association, Umass
		http://glsa.hypermart.net/ 

	International Pragmatics Assoc.
		http://www.ipra.be 

	Langues et Linguistique
		http://y.ennaji.free.fr/fr/ 

	Linguistic Association of Finland
		http://www.ling.helsinki.fi/sky/ 

	Netherlands Graduate School of Linguistics / Landelijke - LOT
		http://www.lotpublications.nl/ 

	Pacific Linguistics
		http://pacling.anu.edu.au/ 

	SIL International
		http://www.ethnologue.com/bookstore.asp 

	St. Jerome Publishing Ltd
		http://www.stjerome.co.uk 

	Utrecht institute of Linguistics
		http://www-uilots.let.uu.nl/ 

-----------------------------------------------------------
LINGUIST List: Vol-19-3266	