The papers in this volume cover a wide range of interrelated syntactic phenomena, from the history of core arguments, to complements and non-finite clauses, elements in the clause periphery, as well as elements with potential scope over complete sentences and even larger discourse chunks. In one way or another, however, they all testify to an increasing awareness that even some of the most central phenomena of syntax - and the way they develop over time - are best understood by taking into account their communicative functions and the way they are processed and represented by speakers' cognitive apparatus. In doing so, they show that historical syntax, and historical linguistics in general, is witnessing a convergence between formerly distinct linguistic frameworks and traditions. With this fusion of traditions, the trend is undeniably towards a richer and more broadly informed understanding of syntactic change and the history of English. This volume will be of great interest to scholars of (English) historical syntax and historical linguistics within the cognitive-linguistic as well as the generative tradition.

The chapters collected in this volume examine how the sociohistorical and cultural context may influence structural features of lexis and text types. Each paper pays particular attention to social 'labels' and attitudes (conservative, religious, ideological, endearing, or other), thereby focusing on their dynamic and historical dimension. Changes in these are analyzed in order to explain morphological, lexical, and textual changes that would otherwise be hard to account for. Together, they provide a varied window on the effect of historical versions of a dynamic society on lexis and text. Examining lexical and textual change in history from a sociocultural perspective teaches us a great deal - not just about the past, but it also makes us think about similar phenomena in the present, enhancing our knowledge about how universally human some of these phenomena are. This volume will be of great interest to (English) historical linguists, sociolinguists, and scholars of sociohistorical and cultural studies.

This book offers fresh perspectives on “shared grammaticalization”, a state whereby two or more languages have the source and the target of a grammaticalization process in common. While contact-induced grammaticalization has generated great interest in recent years, far less attention has been paid to other factors that may give rise to shared grammaticalization. This book intends to put this situation right by approaching shared grammaticalization from an integrated perspective, including areal as well as genealogical and universal motivations and by searching for ways to distinguish between these factors. The volume offers a wealth of empirical facts, presented by internationally renowned specialists, on the Transeurasian languages (i.e. Japonic, Koreanic, Tungusic, Mongolic, and Turkic) — the languages in focus —as well as on various other languages. Shared Grammaticalization will appeal to scholars and advanced students concerned with linguistic reconstruction, language contact and linguistic typology, and to anyone interested in grammaticalization theory.

This volume contributes to the now one-century old question, ‘Is the link between forms and meanings in language essentially arbitrary, as Saussure put it, or is it on the contrary also considerably motivated?’ The greater part of the papers (Sections 1–3) analyze linguistic phenomena in which not arbitrary, but cognitively motivated links between form and meaning play a role. As such, the contributions in Section 1 examine selected aspects of motivation in the continuum between lexicon and grammar; the contributions in Section 2 study the factors underlying the range of (semantic) variants that attach to a particular lexical item; and papers in Section 3 look at motivating factors in linguistic items situated in and conceptualizing the socio-cultural domain. A smaller set of papers in Section 4 point to the role which learner motivation and attitudinal motivation may play in applied linguistics domains.

The papers in this volume cover a wide range of interrelated syntactic phenomena, from the history of core arguments, to complements and non-finite clauses, elements in the clause periphery, as well as elements with potential scope over complete sentences and even larger discourse chunks. In one way or another, however, they all testify to an increasing awareness that even some of the most central phenomena of syntax - and the way they develop over time - are best understood by taking into account their communicative functions and the way they are processed and represented by speakers' cognitive apparatus. In doing so, they show that historical syntax, and historical linguistics in general, is witnessing a convergence between formerly distinct linguistic frameworks and traditions. With this fusion of traditions, the trend is undeniably towards a richer and more broadly informed understanding of syntactic change and the history of English. This volume will be of great interest to scholars of (English) historical syntax and historical linguistics within the cognitive-linguistic as well as the generative tradition.

The chapters collected in this volume examine how the sociohistorical and cultural context may influence structural features of lexis and text types. Each paper pays particular attention to social 'labels' and attitudes (conservative, religious, ideological, endearing, or other), thereby focusing on their dynamic and historical dimension. Changes in these are analyzed in order to explain morphological, lexical, and textual changes that would otherwise be hard to account for. Together, they provide a varied window on the effect of historical versions of a dynamic society on lexis and text. Examining lexical and textual change in history from a sociocultural perspective teaches us a great deal - not just about the past, but it also makes us think about similar phenomena in the present, enhancing our knowledge about how universally human some of these phenomena are. This volume will be of great interest to (English) historical linguists, sociolinguists, and scholars of sociohistorical and cultural studies.

This book offers fresh perspectives on “shared grammaticalization”, a state whereby two or more languages have the source and the target of a grammaticalization process in common. While contact-induced grammaticalization has generated great interest in recent years, far less attention has been paid to other factors that may give rise to shared grammaticalization. This book intends to put this situation right by approaching shared grammaticalization from an integrated perspective, including areal as well as genealogical and universal motivations and by searching for ways to distinguish between these factors. The volume offers a wealth of empirical facts, presented by internationally renowned specialists, on the Transeurasian languages (i.e. Japonic, Koreanic, Tungusic, Mongolic, and Turkic) — the languages in focus —as well as on various other languages. Shared Grammaticalization will appeal to scholars and advanced students concerned with linguistic reconstruction, language contact and linguistic typology, and to anyone interested in grammaticalization theory.

This volume contributes to the now one-century old question, ‘Is the link between forms and meanings in language essentially arbitrary, as Saussure put it, or is it on the contrary also considerably motivated?’ The greater part of the papers (Sections 1–3) analyze linguistic phenomena in which not arbitrary, but cognitively motivated links between form and meaning play a role. As such, the contributions in Section 1 examine selected aspects of motivation in the continuum between lexicon and grammar; the contributions in Section 2 study the factors underlying the range of (semantic) variants that attach to a particular lexical item; and papers in Section 3 look at motivating factors in linguistic items situated in and conceptualizing the socio-cultural domain. A smaller set of papers in Section 4 point to the role which learner motivation and attitudinal motivation may play in applied linguistics domains.