Introduction to "Perspectives on Historical Syntax" (2015) (original) (raw)

Reconstructing Syntactic Variation in Proto-Indo-European (2014)

Indo-European Linguistics, 2014

This paper discusses the problem of linguistic reconstruction in the Indo-European languages with particular attention to syntax. While many scholars consider syntactic reconstruction as being in principle impossible, other scholars simply apply to syntax the same tenets of the Comparative Method and of Internal Reconstruction, which were originally used in Indo-European studies for reconstructing phonology and morphology. Accordingly, it is assumed that synchronically anomalous syntactic structures are more ancient than productive syntactic constructions; the former are considered as being residues of an early stage of Proto-Indo-European, where they were also more regular and took part in a consistent syntactic system. Various hypotheses of Proto-Indo-European as a syntactically consistent language, which in the last years have witnessed resurgence, are here discussed and criticized. We argue that syntactic consistency is nowhere attested in the Indo-European languages, which in their earliest records rather document an amazing structural variation. Accordingly, we recon

THE CHIMERA OF PROTO-INDO-EUROPEAN ERGATIVITY Lessons for Historical Syntax

The main aim of this paper is to demonstrate the value of markedness-based morphosyntactic typology for historical linguistics. This has been called into doubt, mainly or entirely on the basis of objections to an over-reliance upon Greenberg's basic order typology in some recent historical work. Although their (largely well founded) arguments have been directed against uses of that typology in particular, they have tended to conclude by throwing out, along with the Greenbergian bathwater, such babies as 'the typological approach' or 'markedness' in general. I will argue against this by showing how a quite different typology - Silverstein's (1976) typology of case-marking systems - can be profitably applied to reconstruction. In particular, I will examine various competing hypotheses about Proto-Indo-European (PIE) ergativity in light of this typology, and show how this has made it possible to settle some issues which had been debated by Indo-Europeanists for nearly a century on the basis of inconclusive IE-internal evidence and false assumptions concerning ergative languages.

Syntactic Glosses and Historical Syntax

L. Grestenberger, C. Reiss, H. A. Fellner, and G. Z. Pantillon (eds), Ha! Linguistic Studies in Honor of Mark R. Hale. Weisbaden: Reichert Verlag., 2022

This paper explores the significance of syntactic glosses as a data source for historical syntax, and the specific utility of a glossed 12th century text for the study of Old Occitan (OOc). We show that in addition to their importance as sources of information about phonology and lexicon, glossed materials are a potential source of information about the syntax of languages in periods when extensive vernacular materials are scarce or lacking. We also make the point that analysis of syntactic glosses requires a theoretically informed understanding of the grammar under investigation, a point first established in the generative study of older Indo-European languages by the scholar whom we honor (Hale 1987).

The Curious Case of Reconstruction in Syntax

The curious case of reconstruction in syntax, 2020

The general consensus in the historical linguistics community for the last half a century or so has been that syntactic reconstruction is a bootless and unsuccessful venture. However, this view has slowly but steadily been changing among historical linguists, typologists, and anthropological linguists alike. More and more syntactic reconstructions are being published by respectable and virtuous publication venues. The debate on the viability of syntactic reconstruction, however, continues, and issues like i) lack of cognates, ii) lack of arbitrariness in syntax, iii) lack of directionality in syntactic change, iv) lack of continuous transmission from one generation to the next, and v) lack of form-meaning correspondences have, drop by drop, been argued not to be problematic for syntactic reconstruction. The present volume contributes to two of these issues in detail; first the issue of reliably identifying cognates in syntax and second , the issue of directionality in syntactic change. A systematic program is suggested for identifying cognates in syntax, which by definition is a different enterprise from identifying cognates in phonology or morphology. Examples are given from several different language families: Indo-European, Semitic, Austronesian, Jê, Cariban, and Chibchan. Regarding the issue of directionality for syntactic reconstruction, most of the studies in this volume also demonstrate how local directionality may be identified with the aid of different types of morphosyntactic flags, particularly showcased with examples from Chibchan, Semitic, and various Indo-European languages.