Grammar, syntax and morphology Books

Book SynopsisThis book organizes an intermediate level course for non-native learners of Hindi (or Urdu, for that matter, in aspects of grammar and idiomatic expressions). It does so by identifying the subtler aspects of phrasal and sentential constructions that are usually pushed aside as usage' and not provided for systematically. In that sense, this book can also be a useful tool for students studying Hindi (or Urdu) for research in linguistics. However, it seeks to accomplish this more effectively in terms of a wide variety of language materials which span the range from the task-oriented practical colloquial at one end to the literary at the other. The scheme of presentation in the book as providing for a complete course is to give a background introduction to each lesson followed by the lesson itself and the glossary, and thereafter the grammar and exercises relevant to that lesson.

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Book SynopsisThis volume presents a comprehensive study of Arabic morpho-phonology with its basics and intricacies, by making available a wide range of material from the 8th century A.D. until our days and exploring the main topics that arise. It uses as its point of departure an unused source: the end of the 13th century Marāḥ al-arwāḥ by Aḥmad b. ‘alī Mas‘ūd, which is critically edited and provided with an introduction, an English translation and an extensive commentary. It offers an analysis of many grammatical theories, paradigms, qur'anical citations, verses of poetry, dialectal variants and Semitic words and concludes with various indices that make the enormous body of information easily accessible.Trade Review"…excellently well produced…" - M.G. Carter, Bibliotheca Orientalis, 2004 "Insgesamt handelt es sich um eine wissenschaftlich und didaktisch durchaus wertvolle Publikation, die einen guten Einblick in ein späteres Stadium in der Entwicklung der nativen arabischen Morpho-Phonologie gibt." - Lutz Edzard, Orientalistische Literaturzeitung, Vol. 115, 2020

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Book SynopsisThe Omoro Sōshi (1531–1623) is an indispensable resource for historical linguistic comparison of Old Okinawan with other Ryukyuan languages and Old Japanese. Leon A Serafim and Rumiko Shinzato offer a reference grammar, including detailed phonological analyses, of the otherwise opaque and dense poetic/religious language of the Omoro Sōshi. Meshing Western linguistic insight with existing literary/linguistic work in Ryukyuan studies, and incorporating their own research on Modern Okinawan, the authors offer a grammar and phonology of the Omoro language, with selected (excerpts of) songs grammatically analyzed, phonologically reconstructed, translated, and annotated.Table of ContentsPreface List of Figures and Tables Abbreviations and Conventions 1 Introduction  1 What is the Omoro Sōshi?  2 Types of omoro  3 Versions  4 Song Structure  5 Overview of the Omoro Language 2 Spelling System and Phonology  1 Introduction  2 Reconstruction Methodology  3 Suprasegmentals  4 Consonants  5 Processes  6 Meter in Omoros  7 The Question of External Evidence and Its Relation to That Presented Here  8 Coda 3 Lexicon  1 PJ Origin  2 Loans from MJ  3 Loans from Sino-Japanese  4 Loans from Korean  5 Origins Unknown  6 Mishōgo (MO, Meanings Obscure) 4 Nominals  1 Nouns  2 Pronouns  3 Numerals  4 Nominal Prefixes  5 Nominal Suffixes 5 Adjectives  1 What is an Adjective?  2 Evolution of Adjectives  3 Functional Differences between/among Types  4 Functions as Modifiers, Predicates, or Noun Formatives 6 Verbs  1 Conjugation Types  2 History of Conjugational Merger: ra-gyō yodan-ka  3 Functional Split (mz)  4 Development of the Gerund 7 Auxiliaries  1 Passive/Exalting/Spontaneous -ari(·r)- ~ -uyi(·r)-  2 Causative/Exalting -as-  3 Negative -azɨ ~ -aɴ ~ -an-  4 Negative -adana  5 The Optative/Counterfactual Auxiliary -(a)masyi  6 Inference/Intention: -aɴ, -a, and -ami  7 Negative Inferential/Intentional -umazyi  8 Past -syi  9 Perfect -t˚ar-, -c˚yar-, -dar-, -ʣyar-  10 Emphatic Locative: -ʔac˚ɨr-u  11 Progressive: -ur-  12 Progressive/Perfective -yaaryi  13 Copula: -yar-, -nar-  14 The Exalting Auxiliary Verb -(u)wa·r/s-  15 Humilific Auxiliary -abir-  16 Humilific Auxiliary tʰat°imac°ɨr- References Index

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Book SynopsisIntroduction to Generative Syntax provides the student with a comprehensive overview of all major developments in generative syntax since its inception in the 1950s and until the present time. In 250 units, topics commonly encountered in the study of syntax are presented in an accessible and straightforward manner suitable for both students and casual readers. Covered theories and topics include Phrase Structure Rules, X'-Theory, Transformational Grammar, Theta Theory, Government and Binding Theory, Raising and Control, Movement Constraints, Split Projections, the Minimalist Program, and many others.Table of ContentsAcknowledgements To the Teacher Part 1 Lexicon Unit 1 Language I Unit 2 Language II Unit 3 Grammaticality I Unit 4 Grammaticality II Unit 5 Lexical vs. Functional Categories Unit 6 Lexical Categories Unit 7 Functional Categories Unit 8 Categorization I Unit 9 Categorization II Unit 10 Categorization III Unit 11 Categorization IV Unit 12 Categorization V Unit 13 Categorization VI Unit 14 Categorization VII Unit 15 Categorization VIII Part 2 Phrase Structure Unit 16 Heads Unit 17 Specifiers Unit 18 Complements Unit 19 Complement Selection I Unit 20 Complement Selection II Unit 21 Adjunct I Unit 22 Adjunct II Unit 23 Summary Unit 24 Constituency Unit 25 Stand-Alone Test Unit 26 Substitution Test Unit 27 Displacement Test Unit 28 Coordination Test Part 3 Phrase Structure Rules Unit 29 Basics I Unit 30 Basics II Unit 31 Noun Phrase I Unit 32 Noun Phrase II Unit 33 Random Phrases Unit 34 Verb Phrase I Unit 35 Verb Phrase II Unit 36 Sentence I Unit 37 Sentence II Unit 38 Complementizer Unit 39 Conjunction Unit 40 Adjunction Unit 41 Summary I Unit 42 Summary II Part 4 Tree Structure Unit 43 Representation Unit 44 Nodes and Branches Unit 45 Dominance Unit 46 Precedence Unit 47 Noun Phrases Unit 48 Random Phrases Unit 49 Verb Phrases Unit 50 Sentences Unit 51 Complementizer Phrases Unit 52 Conjunction Phrases Unit 53 Adjoined Phrases Unit 54 Tree Drawing I Unit 55 Tree Drawing II Unit 56 Tree Drawing III Unit 57 Ambiguity Part 5 X-Bar Theory Unit 58 Motivation I Unit 59 Motivation II Unit 60 Motivation III Unit 61 Motivation IV Unit 62 Motivation V Unit 63 Motivation VI Unit 64 Motivation VII Unit 65 Motivation VIII Unit 66 Motivation IX Unit 67 Representation I Unit 68 Representation II Unit 69 Representation III Unit 70 NP, AP, PP, AdvP, VP Unit 71 TP and CP Unit 72 Adjunction Rules I Unit 73 Adjunction Rules II Unit 74 Determiner Phrase I Unit 75 Determiner Phrase II Unit 76 Determiner Phrase III Unit 77 Determiner Phrase IV Unit 78 Determiner Phrase V Unit 79 Determiner Phrase VI Unit 80 Determiner Phrase VII Unit 81 Complementizer Phrase I Unit 82 Complementizer Phrase II Unit 83 Complementizer Phrase III Unit 84 Auxiliaries and Modals I Unit 85 Auxiliaries and Modals II Part 6 Transformations Unit 86 Yes/No Questions I Unit 87 Yes/No Questions II Unit 88 Yes/No Questions III Unit 89 Yes/No Questions IV Unit 90 Yes/No Questions V Unit 91 Yes/No Questions VI Unit 92 Principles I Unit 93 Principles II Unit 94 Principles III Unit 95 Principles IV Unit 96 Principles V Unit 97 Principles VI Unit 98 Negation Movement I Unit 99 Negation Movement II Unit 100 Verb Movement I Unit 101 Verb Movement II Unit 102 Tense Markers I Unit 103 Tense Markers II Unit 104 Affix Hopping I Unit 105 Affix Hopping II Unit 106 Wh-Questions I Unit 107 Wh-Questions II Unit 108 Wh-Questions III Unit 109 Wh-Questions IV Unit 110 Wh-Questions V Unit 111 Wh-Questions VI Unit 112 Wh-Questions VII Unit 113 Adjunction Revisited I Unit 114 Adjunction Revisited II Unit 115 Topicalization I Unit 116 Topicalization II Part 7 Theta Theory Unit 117 Thematic Roles I Unit 118 Thematic Roles II Unit 119 Thematic Roles III Unit 120 Thematic Roles IV Unit 121 Thematic Roles V Unit 122 Thematic Roles VI Unit 123 Thematic Roles VII Unit 124 Thematic Roles VIII Unit 125 Subject Condition I Unit 126 Subject Condition II Unit 127 Subject Condition III Unit 128 Subject Condition IV Unit 129 Subject Condition V Unit 130 Subject Condition VI Unit 131 Subject Condition VII Unit 132 Passive I Unit 133 Passive II Unit 134 Passive III Unit 135 A- and A′-movement I Unit 136 A- and A′-movement II Unit 137 Summary Part 8 Constraints on Movements Unit 138 PBC I Unit 139 PBC II Unit 140 PBC III Unit 141 Locality I Unit 142 Locality II Unit 143 Subjacency I Unit 144 Subjacency II Unit 145 Islands I Unit 146 Islands II Unit 147 Islands III Unit 148 Islands IV Unit 149 Islands V Unit 150 Islands VI Unit 151 Summary Part 9 Government and Binding Theory Unit 152 Case Markers I Unit 153 Case Markers II Unit 154 Case Markers III Unit 155 Case Assignment I Unit 156 Case Assignment II Unit 157 Case Assignment III Unit 158 Case Assignment IV Unit 159 Case Checking I Unit 160 Case Checking II Unit 161 Exceptional Case Marking I Unit 162 Exceptional Case Marking II Unit 163 Exceptional Case Marking III Unit 164 Exceptional Case Marking IV Unit 165 Exceptional Case Marking V Unit 166 Exceptional Case Marking VI Unit 167 Exceptional Case Marking VII Unit 168 Unaccusative I Unit 169 Unaccusative II Unit 170 Unaccusative III Unit 171 Binding Theory I Unit 172 Binding Theory II Unit 173 Binding Theory III Unit 174 Binding Theory IV Unit 175 Binding Theory V Unit 176 Binding Theory VI Part 10 Advanced Topics Unit 177 Raising I Unit 178 Raising II Unit 179 Raising III Unit 180 Raising IV Unit 181 Raising V Unit 182 Raising VI Unit 183 Control Theory I Unit 184 Control Theory II Unit 185 Control Theory III Unit 186 Control Theory IV Unit 187 Control Theory V Unit 188 Control Theory VI Unit 189 Control Theory VII Unit 190 Control Theory VIII Unit 191 Control Theory IX Unit 192 Control Theory X Unit 193 Control Theory XI Unit 194 Control Theory XII Unit 195 Control Theory XIII Unit 196 Raising vs. Control I Unit 197 Raising vs. Control II Unit 198 ECM vs. Control I Unit 199 ECM vs. Control II Part 11 Split Projections Unit 200 Split DP Hypothesis I

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Book SynopsisInteractions of Degree and Quantification is a collection of chapters edited by Peter Hallman that deal with superlative, equative and differential constructions cross-linguistically, interactions of the comparative with both individual quantifiers and event structure, the use of the individual quantifier ‘some’ as a numeral, and the question of whether the very notion of ‘degree’ is reducible to a relation between individuals. These issues all represent semantic parallels and interactions between individual quantifiers (every, some, etc.) and degree quantifiers (more, most, numerals, etc.) in the expression of quantity and measurement. The contributions presented here advance the analytical depth and cross-linguistic breadth of the state of the art in semantics and its interface with syntax in human language.Table of ContentsList of Figures and Tables 1 Introduction  Peter Hallman 2 Indeterminate Numerals and Their Alternatives  Curt Anderson 3 The Semantics of the Superlative Quantifier -Est  Barbara Tomaszewicz-Özakın 4 Quantification, Degrees and Beyond in Navajo  Elizabeth Bogal-Allbritten and Elizabeth Coppock 5 Separate but Equal: A Typology of Equative Constructions  Jessica Rett 6 Compounded Scales  Alan Bale 7 From Possible Individuals to Scalar Segments  Roger Schwarzschild 8 Measuring Cardinalities: Evidence from Differential Comparatives in French  Vincent Homer and Rajesh Bhatt 9 Quantifying Events and Activities  Haley Farkas and Alexis Wellwood 10 Split Semantics for Non-monotonic Quantifiers in Than-Clauses  Linmin Zhang 11 Nominal Quantifiers in Than Clauses and Degree Questions  Nicholas Fleisher Index

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Book SynopsisParadigmatic Relations in Word Formation brings together contributions that aim to discuss the nature of paradigms in derivational morphology and compounding in the light of evidence from various languages. Among others, the topics considered in the volume include the interconnectedness between derivational families and paradigms, the constitutive characteristics of a word-formation paradigm, the degree of predictability of word-formation paradigms, and the specificity of paradigms depending on the variety of recognised word-formation processes and patterns.Table of ContentsList of Tables and Figures Notes on Contributors 1 What Paradigms and What For?  Jesús Fernández-Domínguez, Alexandra Bagasheva, and Cristina Lara-Clares 2 Paradigmaticity in Compounding  Alexandra Bagasheva 3 Characterizing Derivational Paradigms  Bernard Fradin 4 The Level of Paradigmaticity within Derivational Networks  Petr Kos 5 Doublet Formation in Palestinian Arabic—Where Do Paradigms Interfere?  Lior Laks and Faten Yousef 6 What We Talk about When We Talk about Paradigms: Representing Latin Word Formation  Eleonora Litta and Marco Budassi 7 A Paradigmatic Approach to Compounding  Jan Radimský 8 Of Brownie Girls and Aussie Families: A New Look at Morphosemantic Paradigmaticity in Adj+ie/y Nominalisations  José A. Sánchez Fajardo and Elizaveta Tarasova 9 Neoclassical Word Formation in English: A Paradigm-Based Account of -scope Formations  Ana Díaz-Negrillo Index

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Book SynopsisThis volume contains a selection of papers presented at the Fifth Conference on the Foundations of Arab Linguistics (FAL V, Cambridge, 2018). The first part of the book deals with Sībawayhi’s Kitāb, the oldest known treatise of Arabic grammar: after providing insights on some of its specific terminology, these chapters evaluate its place as a source within the long-term tradition of grammatical studies. The second part of the book focuses on parallel developments in the Arabic grammatical theory, both in the classical and postclassical periods up to the 15th century. Some contributions also address the relationship between grammar and other disciplines, notably philosophy and Qurʾānic exegesis. As such, this volume aims to deepen our knowledge of the development of linguistic theories in the Islamicate world.

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Book SynopsisThis book offers a comprehensive survey of the agreement phenomena found in written and spoken Arabic. It focuses on both the synchronic description of these agreement systems, and the diachronic question of how they evolved. To answer these questions, large amounts of data have been collected and analysed, ranging from 6th century poetry and Quranic Arabic to the contemporary dialects. The results presented by the authors of this research greatly improve our understanding of Arabic syntax, and challenge some well-established views. Can Arabic be envisioned as possessing more than only two genders? Are some contemporary dialects more similar to the pre-Classical version of the language than MSA is? And is the Standard rule prescribing feminine singular agreement with nonhuman plurals a more recent development than previously thought?Table of ContentsAcknowledgments List of Tables and Figures A Note on Terminology Introductory Note 1 Previous Studies on Agreement in Arabic  1.1 Agreement through Time: Arabic Old and New  1.2 Classical and Modern Standard Arabic  1.3 Spoken Arabic 2 Describing the Systems  2.1 Agreement from a Typological Perspective  2.2 Morphological Markers of Gender and Number in Arabic  2.3 The Spoken Dialects  2.4 Pre-Classical Arabic: Pre-Islamic Poetry and the Quran  2.5 The Odd Ones Out: Classical and Modern Standard Arabic  2.6 Summary 3 A Diachronic Account of Agreement: Formal and Written Arabic  3.1 An Overview of Agreement in Central Semitic  3.2 Methodological Issues in the Selection of the Corpora  3.3 A Change in Progress? Resemanticization in Pre-Islamic Poetry  3.4 Down the Agreement Hierarchy: Evidence from the Quran  3.5 Post-7th Century Poetry  3.6 The Dawn of Arabic Prose: Translated Syntax in Kalīla wa Dimna  3.7 From [-Individuated] to [-Human]: The Reanalysis of Semantic Features in Classical Arabic  3.8 After the 10th Century: What Escaped Standardization  3.9 Nabaṭī Poetry: Poetic Register or Survival of the Old System?  3.10 Summary 4 The Approach of Traditional Grammar: An Attempt at Reconstruction  4.1 Scope of the Chapter  4.2 Early Arabic Grammarians: From Sībawayh to al-Mubarrad  4.3 From 10th Century Grammars to Didactic Manuals: Further Developments  4.4 Between Tradition and Standardization: Arabic Grammar during the Nahḍa  4.5 Summary 5 A Diachronic Account of Agreement: Spoken Arabic  5.1 Feminine Singular Agreement with Plural Controllers: Modern Innovation or Ancient Retention?  5.2 The Loss of Feminine Plural Agreement  5.3 Summary Bibliography Index of Languages and Dialects General Index

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Book SynopsisCerea, madamin, andoma bin? Less than a century ago, this was one of the most frequent greetings heard in Piedmont, a region in northwest Italy. Today, however, Piedmontese is severely endangered. This volume presents the first widely accessible and comprehensive grammatical description of the contemporary koine, covering its phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, pragmatics and typology, and drawing examples from both oral and written sources. Data on the history of the language and the local dialects and notes on revitalization efforts are also included.Table of ContentsConventions, Glosses and Symbols Maps of Place Names in Piedmont Mentioned in the Grammar List of Maps, Tables and Figures 1 The Language and Its History, Classification and Variation  1.1 Overview: Language and Speakers  1.2 Disentangling Classification and Ideology  1.3 The Dialects of Piedmontese: Features and Classification  1.4 The Internal Classification of the Piedmontese Varieties  1.5 Social Varieties in Old Piedmontese  1.6 The Speech of the Piedmontese Jews, Sinti and Waldensians  1.7 A Short Linguistic History of Piedmont  1.8 An Outline of the Piedmontese Literature 2 Phonetics and Phonology  2.1 Default Articulation of Phonemes  2.2 Loan Phonemes, Borrowing and Adaptation  2.3 Previous Accounts of the Phonology of Piedmontese  2.4 Phonetic Processes  2.5 Positional Restrictions on the Occurrence of Phonemes  2.6 Syllables  2.7 Clusters  2.8 Length  2.9 Stress  2.10 Pitch and Intonation 3 Writing System and Orthography  3.1 Overview  3.2 History  3.3 Evaluation 4 Words, Word Constituents and Word Classes  4.1 Roots, Stems, Words, Affixes and Clitics  4.2 Morphological Mechanisms  4.3 Suppletion  4.4 Syncretism  4.5 Word Classes 5 Nouns  5.1 Overview  5.2 Gender  5.3 Number  5.4 Derivational Morphology of Nouns 6 Adjectives  6.1 Overview  6.2 Semantics of Adjectives  6.3 Morphology of Adjectives  6.4 Comparative Constructions  6.5 Adjectives as Nouns  6.6 Derivational Morphology of Adjectives 7 Personal Pronouns  7.1 Overview  7.2 Independent Personal Pronouns  7.3 Subject Personal Pronouns  7.4 Non-subject Personal Pronouns: Object and Indirect Object  7.5 Interrogative Subject Clitics  7.6 Reflexive, Reciprocal and Impersonal Personal Pronouns  7.7 Attributive Pronoun  7.8 Lexicalized Verb-Clitic Constructions  7.9 Post-Tonic Vowel Dropping  7.10 Sequences of Clitics 8 Grounding and Deixis  8.1 Overview  8.2 Determiners and Classifiers  8.3 Deixis  8.4 Possessives 9 Quantifiers  9.1 Numerals  9.2 Generic Quantifiers  9.3 Negative Quantifiers  9.4 Interrogative Quantifiers  9.5 Quantificational Quantifiers 10 Verbs  10.1 Semantic Overview  10.2 Morphological Overview  10.3 Affixes, Allomorphy and Syncretism  10.4 Historical and Comparative Notes  10.5 Moods and Tenses  10.6 Use of the Auxiliaries  10.7 Verbal Derivation 11 Verbal Periphrases and Modalities  11.1 Valency-Increasing Operation, 1: Causative  11.2 Valency-Increasing Operation, 2: Permissive  11.3 Valency-Increasing Operation, 3: Middle  11.4 Modal Verbs  11.5 Progressive and Continuous  11.6 Imminential  11.7 Inchoative  11.8 Durative  11.9 Terminative  11.10 Immediative  11.11 Iterative 12 Adverbs  12.1 Overview  12.2 Predicate Adverbs  12.3 Degree Adverbs and Focalizers  12.4 Sentence Adverbs  12.5 Linking Adverbs  12.6 Adverb Formation Rules and Productivity 13 Prepositions and Prepositional Phrases  13.1 The Expression of Location and Movement  13.2 Basic Prepositions  13.3 Non-basic Prepositions  13.4 Prepositional Use of Adverbs  13.5 Attributive Phrases and Binominal Constructions 14 Phrases  14.1 The Structure of the Noun Phrase  14.2 Grounding and Ordering of Phrases  14.3 Adjectival Phrases  14.4 Temporal Phrases and Telling the Time 15 Clauses  15.1 Non-verbal Predication  15.2 Declarative Clauses  15.3 Introducing the Ubiquitous che  15.4 “Bare” che in Non-verbal Predication  15.5 Relative Clauses  15.6 Imperative Clauses  15.7 Exhortative Clauses  15.8 Mirative and Exclamative Clauses  15.9 Questions  15.10 The Expression of Atmospheric Events 16 Linkage  16.1 Coordination  16.2 Subordination 17 Negation  17.1 Overview  17.2 Sentence Negators  17.3 Negation with Scope over Smaller Units  17.4 Other Negative Items  17.5 Negative Concord  17.6 Holophrastic Negation 18 Pragmatics and Discourse  18.1 Information Structure and Sentence Word Order  18.2 Hanging Topics and Clefts  18.3 Discourse Markers 19 Piedmontese in a Typological Perspective  19.1 Genealogy and Overview  19.2 Phonology  19.3 Morphosyntax  19.4 Lexical Typology  19.5 Piedmontese, Standard Average European, and Other Romance Languages 20 Use, Contact and Care: Codeswitching, Endangerment, Enrichment and Standardization  20.1 Language Ideology through Language Use  20.2 The Long Road toward Resurgence  20.3 Envoi Appendix: Text References Index

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Book SynopsisThe nine contributions collected in this volume deal with clause linkage, focussing on asyndetic constructions that have been little researched in the area of the Ob-Yenisei region. The approaches are in-depth studies of particular languages and mostly based on original data collected in recent fieldworks or from corpora. Differences can be observed, among other things, in a more verbal or nominal use of converbs which take an important role in clause linkage strategies.Table of ContentsAcknowledgments List of Maps, Figures and Tables Abbreviations Introduction  Anja Behnke and Beáta Wagner-Nagy 1 Enets  Andrey Y. Shluinsky and Beáta Wagner-Nagy 2 Tundra Nenets  Nikolett Mus 3 Evenki  Chris Lasse Däbritz 4 Ket  Andrey Nefedov 5 Eastern Khanty  Andrey Filchenko 6 Mansi  Bernadett Bíró 7 Selkup  Anja Behnke and Josefina Budzisch 8 Chulym Turkic  Chris Lasse Däbritz and Birsel Karakoç 9 Kamas  Alexandre Arkhipov and Beáta Wagner-Nagy Index

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Book SynopsisThis volume is a collection of articles dealing with the linguistic category of possession and its expression in languages spoken in Europe and North and Central Asia (Uralic, Turkic, Indo-European and Caucasian), with a few excursions into other parts of the world. Some papers engage in typological comparisons, both within and beyond the borders of individual language families focusing on issues of motivation; meaning and forms used in expressing possession; typology of belong constructions; marking possession in possessor chains; non-canonical possessives and their relation to the category of familiarity; metaphoric shifts of possessive semantics. Others focus on possession in individual languages, offering new precious pieces of information on the linguistic expression of possession in lesser known languages, some of which are endangered and even unwritten. The volume will be of interest to both general linguists and typologists as well as to experts/students of the individual languages or language families analyzed in the papers.

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Book SynopsisThis volume explores how Diachronic Construction Grammar can shed new light on changes in a central and well-researched domain of grammar, namely modality. Its main goal is to show how constructional analyses can help us address some of the long-standing questions that have informed discussions of modal expressions and their development, and to illustrate the processes that are involved in these developments on the basis of data from languages such as English, Finnish, French, Galician, German, and Japanese. The studies in this volume are organized around three interrelated topics. The first of these concerns the organization of modal constructions in a network. A second focus area of the studies in this volume concerns the developmental pathways that modal constructions follow diachronically. The third topic that ties the contributions of this volume together is the contrast between constructionalization and constructional change.

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Book SynopsisThe range of meanings expressed by derivatives formed by the attachment of the four principal verb-forming suffixes - ate, - en, - ify and - ize has been the subject of extensive analysis for over two decades. From a descriptive perspective, the research reported in this volume constitutes the most comprehensive usage-based analysis of verbal derivatives available to date and provides register-based and diachronic comparisons of usage and distribution patterns across corpora of spoken English. The semantic analysis adopts the seven well-established semantic categories of verbal derivatives and extends the set to twenty by including further meaning classes documented in the morphological literature and additional senses that emerged from the contextualized analysis of complex verbs in the datasets. From a theoretical standpoint, the novel approach involves the explicit linking of affix schemas to argument structure constructions, and proposes a unified model of verb-forming suffixation that accounts for the multi-functional characteristics of verbal derivatives, from a constructional perspective.

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