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Syntactic Complexity: Diachrony, acquisition, neuro-cognition, evolutionEdited by T. Givón and Masayoshi Shibatani
[Typological Studies in Language 85] 2009
► pp. 53–80
Edited by T. Givón and Masayoshi Shibatani
[Typological Studies in Language 85] 2009
► pp. 53–80
Re(e)volving complexity
Adding intonation
A fruitful methodology for tracing the development of grammatical complexity has been the examination of centuries of written texts. Yet written documents necessarily remain silent about the prosody of the evolving constructions. An awareness of prosodic patterns can further our understanding of the emergence of complex constructions in several ways. The focus here is on early stages of development of individual constructions within a language, first when prosody is the only indication of complex structure, then when emerging marked constructions are still very young. Processes of development are illustrated with developing complement and relative constructions in Mohawk.
Cited by (14)
Cited by 14 other publications
Benítez‐Burraco, Antonio & Wendy Elvira‐García
2023. Human self‐domestication and the evolution of prosody. Language and Linguistics Compass 17:3 
Inbar, Maya, Eitan Grossman & Ayelet N. Landau
2020. Sequences of Intonation Units form a ~ 1 Hz rhythm. Scientific Reports 10:1
Birchall, Joshua
2018. Historical change in reported speech constructions in the Chapacuran family. Journal of Historical Linguistics 8:1 ► pp. 7 ff.
Givón, T.
2015. The Diachronic Genesis of Synchronic Syntax. In The Handbook of Language Emergence, ► pp. 201 ff.
Givón, T.
Givón, T.
Givón, T.
Givón, T.
MacWhinney, Brian
2015. Introduction. In The Handbook of Language Emergence, ► pp. 1 ff.
Cristofaro, Sonia
2014. Is there really a syntactic category of subordination?. In Contexts of Subordination [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series, 249], ► pp. 73 ff.
Cristofaro, Sonia
2016. Chapter 15. Routes to insubordination. In Insubordination [Typological Studies in Language, 115], ► pp. 393 ff.
Kastner, Itamar, Irit Meir, Wendy Sandler & Svetlana Dachkovsky
2014. The emergence of embedded structure: insights from Kafr Qasem Sign Language. Frontiers in Psychology 5
Sandler, Wendy
2010. Prosody and syntax in sign languages. Transactions of the Philological Society 108:3 ► pp. 298 ff.
[no author supplied]
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