Meaning Change in Grammaticalization
An Enquiry into Semantic Reanalysis
ISBN13: 9780199556472ISBN10: 0199556474
Paperback,
304 pages
Also available:
Hardback
Oct 2008,
Out of Stock
Price:
$49.95 (06)Description
This book explores the semantic and pragmatic mechanisms underlying grammaticalization. Regine Eckardt argues that language change frequently involves a structural reorganization at the phonological, morphological, and syntactic levels. Speakers not only master the structural aspect of such reanalyses, they also-as the author argues-keep a detailed mental record of what has happened to meaning. The author develops semantic reanalysis as the semantic correlate and tracks its effects in meaning change. Several case studies offer new insights in the architecture of conceptual thinking that is part of the human language faculty.Professor Eckardt develops her approach in terms of formal semantic theory. She shows how neatly tailored analyses in truth-conditional compositional semantics can elucidate the structural mechanisms of meaning change. Her exposition is advanced in the context of several in-depth case studies containing data new to historical linguistics.
Features
- Innovative approach to a central aspect of historical linguistics
- Links to topics of key current interest including grammaticalization and language evolution
- Equally accessible to historical linguists and semanticists
- Includes original case studies containing data new to historical linguistics
Product Details
304 pages; Tables, figs., line drawings; ISBN13: 978-0-19-955647-2ISBN10: 0-19-955647-4About the Author(s)
Regine Eckardt is Professor of Linguistics at the University of Gottingen and associate editor of the Journal of Semantics. She is the author of Events, Adverbs and Other Things (1998) and of numerous articles on semantics, pragmatics, and language change, and with Klaus von Heusinger and Christoph Schwarze, editor of Words in Time (2003).
