Types of variation diachronic, dialectal and typological interfaces (J. Benjamins Pub. Co., 2006)
Includes bibliographical references and indexes
Types of Variation; Editorial page; Title page; LCC data; Dedication; Contents; I. Typology and grammaticalization; 'Triangulation' of diachrony, dialectology and typology; Bi-directional vs. uni-directional asymmetries in the encoding of semantic distinctions in free and bound person forms; II. Diachrony and typology; Historical morphology from a typological point of view; Typology and comparative linguistics; Primary adjectives in English and German; The concessive connective albeit; Possessives and determiners in Old English; Analytic of the samyn or synthetic its?
This volume interfaces three fields of linguistics rarely discussed in the same context. Its underlying theme is linguistic variation, and the ways in which historical linguists and dialectologists may learn from insights offered by typology, and vice versa. The aim of the contributions is to raise the awareness of these linguistic subdisciplines of each other and to encourage their cross-fertilization to their mutual benefit. If linguistic typology is to unify the study of all types of linguistic variation, this variation, both diatopic and diachronic, will enrich typological research itself