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Description:
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Linguistic Cycles are ever present in language change and involve a phrase
or word that gradually disappears and is replaced by a new linguistic item.
The most well-known cycles involve negatives, where an initial single
negative, such as 'not,' is reinforced by another negative, such as 'no
thing', and subjects, where full pronouns are reanalyzed as endings on the
verb. This book presents new data and insights on the well-known cyclical
changes as well as on less well-known ones, such as the preposition,
auxiliary, copula, modal, and complementation cycles. Part I covers the
negative cycle with chapters looking in great detail at the steps that are
typical in this cycle. Part II focuses on pronouns, auxiliaries, and the
left periphery. Part III includes work on modals, prepositions, and
complementation. The book ends with a psycholinguistic chapter. This book
brings together linguists from a variety of theoretical frameworks and
contributes to new directions in work on language change.
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