This book provides a description and analysis of a phenomenon that appears to be unique among languages that have been brought to the attention of linguists, namely the possibility of small words occurring inside other words. Examination of this is important because it helps us to understand what a word is from a cross-linguistic point of view. The second part of the book shows how Udi came to be so different from other languages, and how in this sense it explains the phenomenon.

Linguists, biological anthropologists, and cognitive scientists come together in this book to explore the origins and early evolution of phonology, syntax, and semantics. They consider the nature of pre- and proto-linguistic communication, the internal and external triggers that led to its transformation into language, and whether and how language may be considered to have evolved after its inception. Evidence is drawn from many domains, including computer simulations of language emergence, the songs of finches, problem-solving abilities in monkeys, sign language, and the structure of...

The Structure of German is a description of the major features of German according to the principles of modern linguistics. This second edition represents full updates of aspects of German phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics.

This book presents the first comprehensive survey of the languages of the Pacific rim, a vast region containing the greatest typological and genetic diversity in the world. It includes the littoral regions of North and South America, Australasia, east and south-east Asia, and Japan, as well as the Pacific itself. As its languages decline and disappear, sometimes without trace, this rich linguistic heritage is rapidly eroding.

This book describes the historical emergence and spread of the to-infinitive in English. The exposition is clear and does not assume an up-to-date knowledge of generative theory. The book will appeal to the wide spectrum of scholars interested in the transformation of Old to Middle English as well as to those studying the processes and causes of syntactic change more generally.

This is the fullest account ever published of Latin suffixes in English. It explores the rich variety of English words formed by the addition of one or more Latin suffixes, such as -ial, -able, -ability, -ible, and -id. It traces the histories of over 3,000 words, revealing the range of derivational patterns in Indo-European, Latin, and English. It describes the different kinds of suffixes, shows how they entered English via different channels at different times, and considers the complexity of competition between native and borrowed forms. The author examines postclassical, medieval, and...

This book explores the role of agreement morphology in the morphosyntactic realization of a verb's arguments. It examines the differences and parallels between configurational and nonconfigurational languages, languages that allow pronoun drop only in particular constructions, and languages which always require overt syntactic determiner phrases as arguments. These and related issues are explored in the context of a wide range of languages. The book will interest linguists at graduate level and above concerned with morphosyntactic theory, typology, and the interactions of syntax and...

This book addresses the question: why do sound changes happen when and where they do? Jeremy Smith discusses the origins of a series of sound changes in English. He relates his arguments to larger questions about the nature of explanation in history and historical linguistics, and examines the interplay between sound change and social change. Drawing on the latest research in the linguistics and history he shows how insights in one field illuminate the other.
After the opening chapter describing the book's approach and a general theoretical framework for the study of sound-change, the...

The role of structural case in syntax is arguably one of the most controversial topics in syntactic theory with important implications for semantic theory. This book focuses on some of the most puzzling case marking patterns in the Slavic languages and ties these patterns to different types of aspectual phenomena, showing that there is after all a pattern in the seeming chaos of case in the Slavic languages.
Kylie Richardson addresses links between the case marking on objects and the event structure of a verb phrase in Belarusian, Russian, Ukrainian, Czech, Slovak, Polish, and...

This book introduces Proto-Indo-European, describes how it was reconstructed from its descendant languages, and shows what it reveals about the people who spoke it between 5,500 and 8,000 years ago. Using related evidence from archaeology and natural history the authors explore the lives, thoughts, passions, culture, society, economy, history, and environment of the Proto-Indo-Europeans. They include chapters on fauna, flora, family and kinship, clothing and textiles, food and drink, space and time, emotions, mythology, and religion, and describe the quest to discover the Proto-Indo-European...