B01
Register and the development of periphrasis in the history of English
Project B01 will examine periphrastic alternations in the history of English to shed light on what the profile of specific changes can tell us about register knowledge. In the first phase the focus will be on the periphrastic/synthetic alternation in the comparative/superlative of adjectives along with the periphrastic progressive. There is evidence that the shape of variation with these two periphrases is sensitive to register, and the early development of both has been connected to the influence of Latin and French. This can provide the basis for investigating how register interacts with contact and the causes of change. The following three questions will be explored: (i) What can register effects on an alternation tell us about the origins of the novel (periphrastic) construction in the alternation? (ii) What role can register play in triggering and shaping changes? (iii) What can changes in register-sensitive alternations tell us about knowledge of variation?
Members
Project leader
Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c Artemis Alexiadou
Leibniz-Zentrum Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft (ZAS)
Members
Dan Morris
Sprach- und literaturwissenschaftliche Fakultät
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Student assistant
Publications & Presentations
Wiese, Heike; Alexiadou, Artemis; Shanley, Allen; Bunk, Oliver; Gagarina, Natalia; Iefremenko, Kateryna; Martynova, Maria; Pashkova, Tatiana; Rizou, Vicky; Schroeder, Christoph; Shadrova, Anna; Szucsich, Luka; Tracy, Rosemarie; Wintai, Tsehaye; Zerbian, Sabine; Zuban, Yulia (2022) Heritage Speakers as Part of the Native Language Continuum In: Frontiers in Psychology [DOI] [ViVo] Oikonomou, Despina; Rizou, Vasiliki; Bondarenko, Daniil; Özsoy, Onur; Alexiadou, Artemis (2022) Scalar and Counterfactual Approximatives: Investigating Heritage Greek in the USA and Germany In: Languages [DOI] [ViVo] Alexiadou, Artemis (2021) Reanalysis of morphological exponence: a cross-linguistic perspective In: Journal of Historical Syntax [DOI] [ViVo] Sauerland, Uli; Alexiadou, Artemis (2020) Generative Grammar: A Meaning First Approach In: Frontiers in Psychology [DOI] [ViVo] Oikonomou, Despina; Golcher, Felix; Alexiadou, Artemis (2020) Quantifier scope and information structure in Greek In: Glossa: a journal of general linguistics [DOI] [ViVo] Karkaletsou, Fenia; Oikonomou, Despina; Alexiadou, Artemis (2022) Double comparatives are more stronger! Evidence from Greek In: 15th International Conference on Greek Linguistics [ViVo] Karkaletsou, Fenia; Malta, Izabella Rosa; McFadden, Thomas; Morris, Daniel; Spathas, Giorgos; Alexiadou, Artemis (2022) Towards a unified mechanism for the diachronic development of periphrastic alternations In: Diachronic Generative Syntax (DiGS) 23 [ViVo] Alexiadou, Artemis (2021) Online Talk In: 12th International Conference of Nordic and General Linguistics [ViVo] Karkaletsou, Fenia; Oikonomou, Despina; Alexiadou, Artemis (2021) Double comparatives from a crosslinguistc perspective In: Geneva [ViVo] Alexiadou, Artemis; Karkaletsou, Fenia (2021) Synthetic-analytic variation in the formation of Greek comparatives and relative superlativs: A corpus study In: Workshop on complexity and register (CAR21) [ViVo]
Publications
2022
2021
2020
Presentations
2022
2021
Contact
Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c Artemis Alexiadou
Department of English and American Studies(030) 2093-2316
artemis.alexiadou@hu-berlin.de