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Information structure and Jespersen’s cycle

The dialects of Veneto as a window on processes of language change
  • Giuseppe Magistro , Claudia Crocco and Anne Breitbarth
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Language Change at the Interfaces
This chapter is in the book Language Change at the Interfaces

Abstract

In this paper we report the results of an exploratory experiment aiming to examine the division of labour between syntax, phonology, and information structure in linguistic change, in particular, Jespersen’s cycle. According to previous literature, new expressions of negation start out from narrow focus contexts and lose this restriction when they become reanalysed as neutral negators. This leads to the expectation that prosodic correlates of (narrow) focus should be lost in the syntactic reanalysis of emerging negative markers. Looking at a group of North Italian dialects that are currently at different stages of (incipient) Jespersen’s cycle, we show that in more advanced varieties, we find a reduction of the new negator in pitch, duration and spectral organization, confirming our hypothesis.

Abstract

In this paper we report the results of an exploratory experiment aiming to examine the division of labour between syntax, phonology, and information structure in linguistic change, in particular, Jespersen’s cycle. According to previous literature, new expressions of negation start out from narrow focus contexts and lose this restriction when they become reanalysed as neutral negators. This leads to the expectation that prosodic correlates of (narrow) focus should be lost in the syntactic reanalysis of emerging negative markers. Looking at a group of North Italian dialects that are currently at different stages of (incipient) Jespersen’s cycle, we show that in more advanced varieties, we find a reduction of the new negator in pitch, duration and spectral organization, confirming our hypothesis.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Acknowledgments vii
  4. Interface phenomena and language change 1
  5. Part I. Interface phenomena at the intrasentential level
  6. Information structure and Jespersen’s cycle 35
  7. The object position in Old Norwegian 61
  8. Bare quantifiers and Verb Second 95
  9. On the role of information structure in the licensing of null subjects in Old High German 123
  10. Part II. Interface phenomena at the intersentential level
  11. Gehen as a new auxiliary in German 165
  12. Discourse-driven asymmetries between embedded interrogatives and relative clauses in West Germanic 189
  13. Discourse relations and the German prefield 215
  14. Informational aspects of the extraposition of relative clauses 235
  15. Index 253
https://doi.org/10.1075/la.275.01mag

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Acknowledgments vii
  4. Interface phenomena and language change 1
  5. Part I. Interface phenomena at the intrasentential level
  6. Information structure and Jespersen’s cycle 35
  7. The object position in Old Norwegian 61
  8. Bare quantifiers and Verb Second 95
  9. On the role of information structure in the licensing of null subjects in Old High German 123
  10. Part II. Interface phenomena at the intersentential level
  11. Gehen as a new auxiliary in German 165
  12. Discourse-driven asymmetries between embedded interrogatives and relative clauses in West Germanic 189
  13. Discourse relations and the German prefield 215
  14. Informational aspects of the extraposition of relative clauses 235
  15. Index 253
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