Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611

  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
The Synchrony and Diachrony of the Balkan Infinitive: A Study in Areal, General and Historical Linguistics

The Synchrony and Diachrony of the Balkan Infinitive: A Study in Areal, General and Historical Linguistics

Joseph, Brian D.

Paperback

Series: Cambridge Studies in Linguistics

Foreign Language GeneralLinguistics

ISBN10: 0521105331
ISBN13: 9780521105330
Publisher: Cambridge
Published: Mar 19 2009
Pages: 356
Weight: 1.15
Height: 0.79 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
This study offers a comprehensive and illuminating account of one of the characteristics shared to some degree by the languages of the Balkan peninsula - Greek, Albanian, Macedonian, Bulgarian, Serbo-Croatian and Romanian - namely the loss of the infinitive and its replacement by finite verb forms. Dr Joseph meticulously examines the documentary evidence for this loss and, in the light of his findings, many of the oversimplifications, misinterpretations and omissions in earlier accounts are rectified. Many of the issues raised in his discussion, for example how 'infinitive' or 'finiteness' should be defined, have important implications for synchronic syntactic theory and description. In addition, the study is of significance for diachronic linguistics, for it makes a valuable contribution to the debate on constraining possible syntactic changes and syntactic borrowing. This study will also offer insights to linguistics interested in areal typology, since it is one of the fullest accounts available.

Also in

Linguistics

View All