Nonfinite Structures in Theory and Change

by D. Gary Miller

Overview

This book seeks to answer the questions: why do grammars change, and why is the rate of such change so variable? A principal focus is on changes in English between the Anglo-Saxon and early modern periods. The author frames his analysis in a comparative framework with extended discussions of language change in a wide range of other Indo-European languages. He deploys Chomsky's minimalist framework in a fruitful marriage of comparative and theoretical linguistics within an argument that will be accessible to practitioners in both fields.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780198299608
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	05/23/2002
Series:	Oxford Linguistics Ser.
Pages:	488
Product dimensions:	9.30(w) x 6.20(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

D. Gary Miller is Professor of Classics and Linguistics at the University of Florida. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard in 1969, with a dissertation on Studies in Some Forms of the Genitive Singular in Indo-European. He has authored some forty articles on Indo-European, Classical, and General Linguistics. His books include Complex Verb Formation (1993) and Ancient Scripts and Phonological Knowledge (1994).

Table of Contents

Introduction1. Case Checking and Accord2. Tense and Nonfinite Clauses3. Null Subjects and Control4. Plain and Conjugated Infinitives5. West Greenlandic6. Small Clauses and ECM7. The ECM Innovation in English8. Infinitives in Older English9. The -Ing Participle and Perception Complements10. English Gerundials11. History of English Gerundials12. Infinitive, Gerundive, ParticiplePrimary SourcesEditions of Older English Texts