Morphological developments affecting syntactic change
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Maria Goldbach
Abstract
This article is concerned with the role of the morphological paradigm in syntactic change. The discussion focuses on syntactic change in infinitival complements and the distribution of these complements in the context of infinitive embedding verb phrases. I argue that the syntactic structure of the infinitival complements is closely related to the co-occurrence of inflectional exponents on the infinite verb forms. The presence of inflectional exponents on infinitive verb forms determines the quality of the functional syntactic category Infl in the infinitival complements. Syntactic changes in the structure and/or in the distribution of infinitival complements originate from paradigm alterations concerning the inflectional exponents of the infinite verb forms.
Abstract
This article is concerned with the role of the morphological paradigm in syntactic change. The discussion focuses on syntactic change in infinitival complements and the distribution of these complements in the context of infinitive embedding verb phrases. I argue that the syntactic structure of the infinitival complements is closely related to the co-occurrence of inflectional exponents on the infinite verb forms. The presence of inflectional exponents on infinitive verb forms determines the quality of the functional syntactic category Infl in the infinitival complements. Syntactic changes in the structure and/or in the distribution of infinitival complements originate from paradigm alterations concerning the inflectional exponents of the infinite verb forms.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
- Syntactic change from within and from without syntax: A usage-based analysis 13
- On explaining the rise of c'est -clefts in French 31
- The role of the plural system in Romance 57
- Morphological developments affecting syntactic change 85
- Grammaticalisation within the IP-domain 107
- Imperfect systems and diachronic change 127
- From temporal to modal: Divergent fates of the Latin synthetic pluperfect in Spanish and Portuguese 147
- Non-lexical core-arguments in Basque, Romance and German: How (and why) Spanish syntax is shifting towards clausal headmarking and morphological cross-reference 181
- Towards a comprehensive view of language change: Three recent evolutionary approaches 215
- Subject Index 251
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
- Syntactic change from within and from without syntax: A usage-based analysis 13
- On explaining the rise of c'est -clefts in French 31
- The role of the plural system in Romance 57
- Morphological developments affecting syntactic change 85
- Grammaticalisation within the IP-domain 107
- Imperfect systems and diachronic change 127
- From temporal to modal: Divergent fates of the Latin synthetic pluperfect in Spanish and Portuguese 147
- Non-lexical core-arguments in Basque, Romance and German: How (and why) Spanish syntax is shifting towards clausal headmarking and morphological cross-reference 181
- Towards a comprehensive view of language change: Three recent evolutionary approaches 215
- Subject Index 251
