Language Change at the Syntax-Semantics Interface (Trends in Linguistics Studies and Monographs, v. 278)

This volume focuses on the interplay of syntactic and semantic factors in language change. The contributions draw on data from numerous Indo-European languages and address the question of how syntactic and semantic change are linked and whether both are governed by similar constraints, principles and systematic mechanisms. The volume will appeal to scholars in historical linguistics and formal theories of syntax and semantics.

This book provides a systematic study of three foundational issues in the semantics of natural language that have been relatively neglected in the past few decades.
Focuses on the formal characterization of intensions, the nature of an adequate type system for natural language semantics, and the formal power of the semantic representation language.
Proposes a theory that offers a promising framework for developing a computational semantic system sufficiently expressive to capture the properties of natural language meaning while remaining computationally tractable.

Unnecessary prepositions - Grammar short lessons - 2014 -

Sometimes we use prepositions where they are not necessary. While expressions like ‘check up on’ and ‘as from’ are not exactly considered incorrect, they should be avoided in academic and formal writing.

In recent years, we have witnessed, on the one hand, an increased interest in cross-linguistic data in formal semantic studies, and, on the other hand, an increased concern for semantic issues in language typology. However, only few studies combine semantic and typological research for a particular semantic domain (such as the papers in Bach et al. (1995) on quantification and Smith (1997) on aspect). This book brings together formal semanticists with a cross-linguistic perspective and/or those working on lesser-known languages, and typologists interested in semantic theory, to discuss semantic variation in the specific domain of Tense, Aspect, and Mood/Modality.

This collective volume focuses on the crucial role of formal evidence in recognizing and explaining instances of grammaticalization. It addresses the hitherto neglected issue of system-internal factors steering grammaticalization and also revisits formal recognition criteria such as Lehmann and Hopper s parameters of grammaticalization. The articles investigate developments of such phenomena as modal auxiliaries, attitudinal markers, V1-conditionals, nominalizers, and pronouns, using data from a wide range of languages and (in some cases) from diachronic corpora.