Reconstructing Syntax

Description:

"During several decades, syntactic reconstruction has been more or less regarded as a bootless and an unsuccessful venture, not least due to the heavy criticism in the 1970s from scholars like Watkins, Jeffers, Lightfoot, etc. This fallacious view culminated in Lightfoot's (2002: 625) conclusion: "[i]f somebody thinks that they can reconstruct grammars more successfully and in more widespread fashion, let them tell us their methods and show us their results. Then we'll eat the pudding." This volume provides methods for the identification of i) cognates in syntax, and ii) the directionality of syntactic change, showcasing the results in the introduction and eight articles. These examples are offered as both tastier and also more nourishing than the pudding Lightfoot had in mind when discarding the viability of reconstructing syntax"--

subjects: Language and languages,  Reconstruction (Linguistics),  Case studies,  Construction grammar,  Linguistic change,  Historical linguistics,  Comparative linguistics,  Comparative and general Grammar,  Syntax,  Historische Sprachwissenschaft,  Konstruktionsgrammatik,  Rekonstruktion,  Sprachwandel,  Vergleichende Sprachwissenschaft