30.2436, Books: Categoriality in Language Change: Fonteyn

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-30-2436. Thu Jun 13 2019. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 30.2436, Books: Categoriality in Language Change: Fonteyn

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Date: Thu, 13 Jun 2019 15:00:31
From: Alyssa Russell [Alyssa.Russell at oup.com]
Subject: Categoriality in Language Change: Fonteyn

 


Title: Categoriality in Language Change 
Subtitle: The Case of the English Gerund 
Series Title: Oxford Studies in the History of English  

Publication Year: 2019 
Publisher: Oxford University Press
	   http://www.oup.com/us
	

Book URL: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/categoriality-in-language-change-9780190917579 


Author: Lauren Fonteyn

Hardback: ISBN:  9780190917579 Pages: 232 Price: U.S. $ 125


Abstract:

This book presents the first serious attempt to set out a functional-semantic
definition of diachronic transcategorial shift between the major classes
noun/nominal and verb/clause. In English, speakers have different options to
refer to an event, ranging from that-clauses (That he had guessed her size)
over infinitives (For him to guess her size) and verbal gerunds (Him guessing
her size) to nominal gerunds (His guessing of her size) and deverbal nouns
(His guess of her size). Interestingly, not only do these strategies each
resemble "prototypical" nominals to varying extents, but also some of these
strategies increasingly resemble clauses and decreasingly resemble
prototypical nominals over time, as if they are gradually shifting categories.
Thus far, the literature that has dealt with such cases of diachronic
categorial shift has mainly described the processes by focusing on form,
leaving us with a clear picture of what and how changes have occurred. Yet,
the question of why these formal changes have occurred is still shrouded in
mystery. 

In this book, Lauren Fonteyn tackles this mystery by showing that the
diachronic processes of nominalization and verbalization can also involve
functional-semantic changes in two steps. First, building on functionalist and
cognitive models of grammar, she offers a theoretical model of categoriality
that allows us to study diachronic nominalization and verbalization not just
as morphosyntactic but also as functional-semantic processes. Second, she
offers more concrete, "workable" definitions of the abstract
functional-semantic properties of the nominal and verbal/clausal class, which
are subsequently applied to one of the most intriguing deverbal nominalization
systems in the history of English: the English gerund.
 



Linguistic Field(s): Morphology
                     Syntax


Written In: English  (eng)

See this book announcement on our website: 
http://linguistlist.org/pubs/books/get-book.cfm?BookID=136235




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