23.4416, Diss: Germanic/ Historical Linguistics/ Syntax: Walkden: 'Syntactic Reconstruction and Proto-Germanic'

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LINGUIST List: Vol-23-4416. Mon Oct 22 2012. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 23.4416, Diss: Germanic/ Historical Linguistics/ Syntax: Walkden: 'Syntactic Reconstruction and Proto-Germanic'

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Date: Mon, 22 Oct 2012 16:44:32
From: George Walkden [george.walkden at gmail.com]
Subject: Syntactic Reconstruction and Proto-Germanic

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Institution: Cambridge University 
Program: PhD in Linguistics 
Dissertation Status: Completed 
Degree Date: 2012 

Author: George Walkden

Dissertation Title: Syntactic Reconstruction and Proto-Germanic 

Linguistic Field(s): Historical Linguistics
                     Syntax

Language Family(ies): Germanic


Dissertation Director(s):
David Willis

Dissertation Abstract:

This thesis investigates methods, possibilities and limitations in the 
reconstruction of syntax in a framework which holds that the object of 
inquiry is knowledge of language and which acknowledges that the 
transmission of that knowledge is discontinuous. The main objections 
to syntactic reconstruction raised in the literature are assessed, and it 
is argued that the reconstruction of syntax is qualitatively different from 
lexical-phonological reconstruction due to the so-called 
'correspondence problem'; it is also suggested that other objections to 
syntactic reconstruction based on assumed lack of parallel between 
syntax and phonology, such as the supposed absence of directional 
tendencies and inability to identify contact influence, are either illusory 
or reduce to the correspondence problem. It is argued that the 
approach taken in current Minimalist theories of syntactic variation, in 
which all such variation is attributed to the properties of lexical items, 
sheds light on the problem of syntactic reconstruction by enabling a 
clear comparison between syntactic and phonological variation, and 
opens the door for syntactic reconstruction as lexical reconstruction. 
Practical solutions for circumventing the correspondence problem are 
also discussed, in particular the use of both distributional properties of 
lexical items and the phonological forms of such items in order to 
establish cognacy.


The bulk of the thesis is devoted to case studies from the early 
Germanic languages intended to illustrate this methodology, dealing 
with verb position in main clauses, the syntax of the wh-system, and 
the (non-)occurrence of null pronominal subjects and objects. With 
regard to verb position it is argued that all the early Germanic 
languages except Gothic exhibit robust evidence for verb movement to 
the C-domain in neutral declarative main clauses, and that other 
positions may well have been associated with specific interpretive 
effects. In the wh-system verb movement to the C-domain was even 
more clearly established, again with certain classes of well-defined 
exceptions that can be accounted for on a principled basis; treating the 
early Germanic wh-system as a whole also leads to a less stipulative 
account of the supposed West Germanic 'interjection' *hwat, as an 
underspecified wh-item introducing an exclamative clause. Subjects 
(and, more rarely, objects) could be null in all the early Germanic 
languages, with slight variations; a partial null argument analysis of 
these languages is argued for, and it is suggested that this property 
can be reconstructed at least for Proto-Northwest Germanic. 






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