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About this product
Product Identifiers
PublisherOxford University Press, Incorporated
ISBN-100198240961
ISBN-139780198240969
eBay Product ID (ePID)65677
Product Key Features
Number of Pages528 Pages
LanguageEnglish
Publication NameCase-Marking and Reanalysis : Grammatical Relations from Old to Early Modern English
SubjectOld & Middle English, Linguistics / Morphology, General, Linguistics / General
Publication Year1995
TypeLanguage Course
Subject AreaForeign Language Study, Language Arts & Disciplines
AuthorCynthia L. Allen
FormatHardcover
Dimensions
Item Height1.3 in
Item Weight34.6 Oz
Item Length9.5 in
Item Width6.4 in
Additional Product Features
Intended AudienceCollege Audience
LCCN94-043912
Dewey Edition20
Reviews'fruitful interaction between historical linguistics and linguistic theory is rarely the aim and even more rarely achieved ... Allen's work is a remarkable exception. It is her avowed intention to bring together the methodology, assumptions and principles of the two disciplines, to show thateach can benefit from the other. This she does with signal success. Allen presents a careful and detailed examination of changes in case marking and claimed relationships to syntactic changes. This in itself is valuable and significant. More than this, Allen provides a thoroughly worked-out, clearlypresented model of historical linguistic investigation ... a rewarding blend of descriptive rigour and theoretical insight.'Australian Journal of Linguistics, 'It is rich in historical detail, and there are inevitably many points to discuss ... I recommend this book for its detailed, careful and explicit historical account.'Journal of Linguistics
IllustratedYes
Dewey Decimal425
SynopsisEnglish underwent sweeping changes to its inflectional system in the Middle English period and it is widely assumed that the loss of case-marking distinctions had profound consequences for the syntax of the language. Allen here makes a detailed study of these changes, questioning the results of previous analyses which, she argues, posit too direct a link between the morphological and syntactic changes., It is commonly stated that the loss of case marking distinctions between Old and Middle English had profound consequences for the syntax of the language. In particular, linguists have attributed both the loss of the 'impersonal' constructions such as methinks and the introduction of new passives such as he was given a book directly to the loss of case marking distinctions. Dr Allen makes a careful examination of the primary evidence for how the loss of case distinctions proceeded, and of the temporal relationship between changes in morphology and particular syntactic changes. She demonstrates that morphological change had a less direct role in the triggering of syntactic change than is usually assumed, and that some changes traditionally considered to be the result of syntactic reanalysis are better treated in other ways.