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Description:
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Welsh, like the other Celtic languages, is best-known amongst linguists for
its verb-initial word order and its use of initial consonant mutations.
However it has many more characteristics which are of interest to
syntacticians. This is a concise and accessible overview of the major
syntactic phenomena of Welsh. A broad variety of topics are covered,
including finite and infinitival clauses, noun phrases, agreement and
tense, word order, clause structure, dialect variation, and the
language's historical Celtic background. Drawing on work carried out in
both Principles and Parameters theory and Head-driven Phrase Structure
Grammar, it takes contemporary colloquial Welsh as its starting point and
draws contrasts with a range of literary and dialectal forms of the
language, as well as earlier forms (Middle Welsh) were appropriate. An
engaging guide to all that is interesting about Welsh syntax, this book
will be welcomed by syntactic theorists, typologists, historical linguists
and Celticists alike.
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