From Latin to Romance
Morphosyntactic Typology and Change
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Oxford University Press
Published:28th May '15
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- Hardback£130.00(9780199584376)
This book examines the grammatical changes that took place in the transition from Latin to the Romance languages. The emerging languages underwent changes in three fundamental areas involving the noun phrase, verb phrase, and the sentence. The impact of the changes can be seen in the reduction of the Latin case system; the appearance of auxiliary verb structures to mark such categories tense, mood, and voice; and a shift towards greater rigidification of word order. The author considers how far these changes are interrelated and compares their various manifestations and pace of change across the different standard and non-standard varieties of Romance. He describes the historical background to the emergence of the Romance varieties and their Latin ancestry, considering in detail the richly documented diachronic variation exhibited by the Romance family. Adam Ledgeway reviews the accounts and explanations that have been proposed within competing theoretical frameworks, and considers how far traditional ideas should be reinterpreted in light of recent theoretical developments. His wide-ranging account shows that the transition from Latin to Romance is not only of great intrinsic interest, but both provides a means of challenging linguistic orthodoxies and presents opportunities to shape new persepctives on language change, structure, and variation.
A fundamental contribution for everyone interested in the study of the relationship between ancient and modern languages [...] A milestone in studies in the field. * Renato Oniga, Lingue antiche e moderne *
Ledgeway's exposition is lucid and engaging. The technicalities of the analysis should not deter the inexperienced reader, in that every step of the argumentation is expounded meticulously and exhaustively, and supported with extraordinarily accurate and varied evidence from early, classical, and late Latin, on the one hand, and main and lesser known Romance languages, on the other. From Latin to Romance is a rare example of intellectual acumen married with scholarly attention to detail. It will be eagerly read by Classicists, and Romance and theoretical linguists alike. It should be listed in undergraduate and postgraduate Romance linguistics syllabi. * Delia Bentley, Italian Studies *
The argumentation is expertly presented [...] Ledgeway provides the very best in synchronic and diachronic descriptions of the behaviour of Latin and its descendant languages [...] a wide-ranging study [that] represents an excellent example of the application of a model of formal analysis. * Paolo Ramat, Archivio Glottologico Italiano *
A model of how modern diachronic syntax can re-think the traditional descriptive distinctions and can incorporate the latest benefits of generative grammar theorizing, without throwing into relief the theory at the expense of the data. * Adina Dragomirescu, Revue Roumaine de Linguistique *
ISBN: 9780198736691
Dimensions: 232mm x 153mm x 27mm
Weight: 1g
466 pages