LINGUIST List 10.611

Tue Apr 27 1999

Books: Historical Linguistics

Editor for this issue: Scott Fults <scottlinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Paul Peranteau, Historical Syntax of Late Middle Indo-Aryan, V. Bubenikt

John Benjamins Publishing would like to announce the publication of this
new book:

A Historical Syntax of Late Middle Indo-Aryan (Apabhramsa).
Vit Bubenikt
Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 165
US & Canada: 1 55619 881 7 / USD 89.00 (Hardcover)
Rest of World: 90 272 3670 4 / NLG 178.00 (Hardcover)

This monograph aims to close the gap in our knowledge of the nature
and pace of grammatical change during the formative period of today's
Indo-Aryan languages. During the 6th-12th c. the gradual erosion of
the synthetic morphology of Old Indo-Aryan resulted ultimately in the
remodelling of its syntax in the direction of the New Indo-Aryan
analytic type.

This study concentrates on the emergence and development of the
ergative construction in terms of the passive-to-ergative reanalysis
and the co-existence of the ergative construction with the old and new
analytic passive constructions. Special attention is paid to the
actuation problem seen as the tug of war between conservative and
eliminative forces during their development. Other chapters deal with
the evolution of grammatical and lexical aspect, causativization,
modality, absolute constructions and subordination.

This study is based on a wealth of new data gleaned from original
poetic works in Apabhramsa (by Svayambhudeva, Puspadanta, Haribhadra,
Somaprabha et al.). It contains sections dealing with descriptive
techniques of Medieval Indian grammarians (esp. Hemacandra). All the
Sanskrit, Prakrit and Apabhramsa examples are consistently parsed and
translated.

The opus is cast in the theoretical framework of Functional Grammar of
the Prague and Amsterdam Schools. It should be of particular interest
to scholars and students of Indo-Aryan and general historical
linguistics, especially those interested in the issues of
morphosyntactic change and typology in their sociohistorical setting.

			John Benjamins Publishing Co. 
Offices:	Philadelphia			Amsterdam:
Websites: 	http://www.benjamins.com	http://www.benjamins.nl
E-mail:		servicebenjamins.com		customer.servicesbenjamins.nl
Phone:		+215 836-1200			+31 20 6762325
Fax: 		+215 836-1204			+31 20 6739773

The following contributing LINGUIST publishers have made their backlists available on the World Wide Web:

1998 Contributors