From Case to Adposition

The development of configurational syntax in Indo-European languages

Authors

John Hewson | Memorial University of Newfoundland

Vit Bubenik | Memorial University of Newfoundland

Hardbound – Available

ISBN 9789027247957 | EUR 130.00 | USD 195.00

e-Book –

ISBN 9789027292964 | EUR 130.00 | USD 195.00

In the historical development of many languages of the IE phylum the loss of inflectional morphology led to the development of a configurational syntax, where syntactic position marked syntactic role. The first of these configurations was the adposition (preposition or postposition), which developed out of the uninflected particle/preverbs in the older forms of IE, by forming fixed phrases with nominal elements, a pattern later followed in the development of a configurational NP (article + nominal) and VP (auxiliary + verbal).

The authors follow this evolution through almost four thousand years of documentation in all twelve language families of the Indo-European phylum, noting the resemblances between the structure of the original IE case system and the systemic oppositions to be found in the sets of adpositions that replaced it.

Quite apart from its theoretical analyses and proposals which in themselves amount to a new look at many traditional problems, this study has a value in the collected store of information on cases, and on adpositions and their usage. There is also a considerable store of etymological information that is relevant to the description of the systemic development.

[Current Issues in Linguistic Theory, 280] 2006. xxx, 420 pp.

Publishing status: Available

https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.280

Table of Contents

Author's Preface | pp. v–xii

List of illustrations | pp. xxi–xxiv

Abbreviations of Languages and Dialects | pp. xxv–xxvi

Abbreviations of Primary Literature | p. xxvii

Abbreviations of Grammatical Terms | pp. xxviii–xxx

Typological Evolution in IE

John Hewson | pp. 1–27

The Syntax of the Prepositional Phrase

John Hewson | pp. 28–53

Case and Prepositions in Ancient Greek

John Hewson | pp. 54–80

Cases and Postpositions in Hittite

Vit Bubenik | pp. 81–101

Cases and Postpositions in Indo-Aryan

Vit Bubenik | pp. 102–130

Cases and Prepositions in Iranian

Vit Bubenik | pp. 131–159

Armenian

Vit Bubenik | pp. 160–177

From Old to Modern Slavic

Vit Bubenik | pp. 178–204

Baltic Languages

Vit Bubenik and John Hewson | pp. 205–225

From Ancient to Modern Celtic

John Hewson | pp. 228–246

From Latin to Modern Romance

John Hewson | pp. 247–273

From Ancient to Modern Germanic

John Hewson | pp. 274–303

Albanian

Vit Bubenik | pp. 304–316

Tocharian

Vit Bubenik | pp. 317–333

Cases, Averbial Particles and Adpositions in Proto-Indo-European

Vit Bubenik | pp. 334–356

Conclusions

Vit Bubenik and John Hewson | pp. 357–383

References and Select Bibliography | pp. 384–409

Index of Authors | pp. 410–412

Index of Languages | pp. 413–417

General Index | p. 418

“In a clear, succinct, and methodical way, but also with an amazing and admirable command of data from all twelve IE language branches spanning over 3000 years, Hewson and Bubenik offer us a wonderful book with answers to many perplexing questions. This book will become the reference work on the topic, but its worth for typological purposes will also become evident. As in T ense and Aspect in Indo-European Languages (1997), the authors demonstrate why history is important for any meaningful advancement of knowledge. I read the current book with a lot of pleasure and interest, and learned a lot.”

Georgios K. Giannakis, University of Ioannina

“It's not often that we witness a revolution in linguistics as we do in the present volume. But the study itself demonstrates revolution in language itself as we pass from Latin to French, from Brittanic to Welsh and so on. In the general and massive shift from case to adposition, we have a quantum leap. We have two different analyses of reality. Each is based on a radically different method of systematisation. We become witnesses to a major re-organisation of sentence structure throughout Indo-European, each revealing a similar, yet independent, System of systems. Such a typological shift, as a whole and in individual cases must also be a perceptual shift, i.e. one that looks at things differently, where relationships are realised from a different psycho-mechanical stance.”

R.M. Jones, Prof. Emer., University of Wales

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[no author supplied]

2010. Copyright Page. In Greek Prepositions, ► pp. iv ff.

[no author supplied]

2010. Abbreviations. In Adpositions, ► pp. ix ff.

[no author supplied]

2010. Copyright Page. In Adpositions, ► pp. iv ff.

[no author supplied]

2010. Dedication. In Greek Prepositions, ► pp. ii ff.

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2010. Foreword. In Greek Prepositions, ► pp. xii ff.

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This list is based on CrossRef data as of 16 april 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Subjects

Linguistics

Historical linguistics

Syntax

Typology

Main BIC Subject

CF: Linguistics

Main BISAC Subject

LAN009000: LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / General

ONIX Metadata

ONIX 2.1

ONIX 3.0

U.S. Library of Congress Control Number: 2006047967 | Marc record