Emergence and Development of Svo Patterning in Latin and French - Diachronic and Psycholinguistic Perspectives

Zusatztext "This book has a classic symmetry: a concise introduction and conclusion enfold five substantive chapters...The text is densely packed with data, quotations and discussion of relevant literature", Klappentext This book analyzes - in terms of branching - the pervasive reorganization of Latin syntactic and morphological structures: in the development from Latin to French, a shift can be observed from the archaic, left-branching structures (which Latin inherited from Proto-Indo-European) to modern right-branching equivalents. Brigitte L.M. Bauer presents a detailed analysis of this development based on the theoretical discussion and definition of "branching" and "head". Subsequently she relates the diachronic shift to psycholinguistic evidence, arguing that the difficulty of left-branching complex structures as reflected in their painstaking and delayed acquisition accounts for the extensive typological shift from left to right branching that took place in Latin/French and the other Indo-European languages. The author uses data from child language acquisition studies to support her thought-provoking claim. Zusammenfassung Bauer tries to show that there has been an evolution in Romance syntax and morphology from left-branching structures (subject-object-verb) to right-branching structures (subject-verb-object). She uses data from child language acquisition studies to back up this claim.

Product details

• Authors: Brigitte L. Bauer, Brigitte L. M. Bauer, Brigitte L. M. (Research Fellow Bauer, Brigitte L.M. Bauer
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 01.12.1994
• EAN: 9780195091038
• ISBN: 978-0-19-509103-8
• No. of pages: 258
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative linguistics; LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Grammar & Punctuation, LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / Syntax, Psycholinguistics, Grammar, syntax & morphology, Grammar, syntax and morphology, Psycholinguistics and cognitive linguistics