A Historical Syntax of English - (Edinburgh Textbooks on the English Language - Advanced) by Bettelou Los (Paperback)

About the Book

This book discusses a number of approaches to charting the major developments in the syntax of English, addressing key issues of interpretation and focus for the benefit of students of the topic.

Book Synopsis

This book discusses a number of approaches to charting the major developments in the syntax of English, addressing key issues of interpretation and focus for the benefit of students of the topic. It does not assume any knowledge of Old or Middle English or of formal syntax, although students should be familiar with traditional syntactic concepts such as verbs and nouns, subjects and objects, and a general knowledge of linguistic concepts such as morphology or case.Drawing on explanations from both formal and functional approaches, Los explores how syntactic changes are the product of the interaction of many factors, external (the product of a certain sociolinguistic constellation of language or dialect contact) and internal (e.g. the loss of morphology, pressure from analogy).The book will strike a balance between theoretical explanation and accessibility to readers who have not had any training in formal syntax.

From the Back Cover

EDINBURGH TEXTBOOKS ON THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE -ADVANCED SERIES EDITOR: HEINZ GIEGERICH Books in this series provide readers with a detailed description and explanation of key areas of English Language study. The authors presuppose a basic working knowledge of the topic and explore aspects of the linguistics of English for an intermediate or advanced student readership. A Historical Syntax of English Bettelou Los This textbook provides graduate and advanced undergraduate students of linguistics with a toolkit for addressing the key issues of interpretation and explanation in the historical syntax of the English language. Topics covered include the development of lexical verbs into auxiliaries, how lexical and grammatical aspects interact with syntax and discourse, the original motivations for finite verb movement, and inconsistencies in the main clause/sub-clause distinction in Old English. Each chapter provides the reader with suggestions for further reading, as well as exercises designed to test understanding of this complex and fascinating field.

Review Quotes

This broad perspective of historical syntax incorporating findings of current research into the discourse factors motivating syntactic change makes this book an outstanding accomplishment. It is entirely appropriate for its target audience, i.e. advanced students of (English) linguistics... This book will be an indispensable textbook on English historical syntax for many years to come.--Ursula Lenker "English Studies"

This textbook is a remarkable accomplishment: a very accessible combination of formal and descriptive approaches to syntactic change in English, incorporating the latest research. Unlike traditional accounts, it pays copious attention to discourse-pragmatic factors in syntactic change. An excellent set of exercises is included at the end of each chapter.--Laurel J. Brinton, University of British Columbia, Vancouver

About the Author

Bettelou Los is Forbes Professor of English Language at the University of Edinburgh. She graduated from the University of Amsterdam in 1986 and has since held teaching and research positions at the University of Amsterdam, the Vrije Universiteit, the University of Nijmegen, Radboud University Nijmegen and other colleges of high education. She participates in the research program The Diachrony of Complex Predicates in West Germanic, and has published several papers on diachronic syntax. Previous publications include The Handbook of the History of English, Blackwell, as co-editor (2006), and The Rise of the To-Infinitive, Oxford University Press (2005).