BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Talks.cam//talks.cam.ac.uk//
X-WR-CALNAME:Talks.cam
BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:Syntactic change and information structure - Prof. Eric Fuss (Goet
 he Universität Frankfurt/ Universität Stuttgart)
DTSTART:20120501T153000Z
DTEND:20120501T170000Z
UID:TALK37403@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Dr Theresa Biberauer
DESCRIPTION:*Abstract*\n\nIn traditional work in historical linguistics\, 
 it is often assumed that syntactic change may be triggered by fluctuations
  in the usage frequency of 'stylistically' marked patterns expressing info
 rmation-structural (IS) categories such as topic or focus (cf. e.g. Givón
  1976 on the reanalysis of resumptive pronouns as agreement markers\, Stoc
 kwell 1977\, Kemenade 1987 on the change from OV to VO in the history of E
 nglish). However\, recent findings from both diachronic quantitative analy
 ses and language acquisition studies cast some doubt on the validity of th
 is scenario. Thus\, it has been pointed out that the ratio of relevant IS-
 related patterns seems to remain constant over time (cf. Pintzuk 1999\, Ta
 ylor & Pintzuk 2012)\, and that learners acquire (even subtle) information
 -structural distinctions\, by and large\, early and flawlessly (Westergaar
 d 2010). This paper explores the wiggle room these findings leave for lang
 uage change\, starting out from the observation that in many cases\, IS-re
 lated syntactic change involves competition between different strategies t
 o realize one and the same IS category. We will then propose a typology of
  changes related to the syntactic expression/encoding of IS categories\, f
 ocusing on examples of 'fossilization' (reanalysis of IS-related syntactic
  patterns as either (i) morphology (grammaticalization/morphologization) o
 r (ii) movement driven by semantically/pragmatically neutral EPP-features 
 (e.g.\, the rise of generalized V2 in Germanic)) and instances where an IS
 -related pattern is ‘cannibalized’ by other IS-related patterns (which
  might also lead to the disappearance of IS categories from the language\,
  cf. Matić 2010 on changes affecting postverbal topical subjects in Serbo
 -Croatian). In addition\, we will take a look at diachronic processes that
  may lead to new IS-related form-function pairings (including changes in w
 hich syntactic patterns linked to a certain IS category are reanalyzed as 
 the expression of another IS category\, e.g. the rise of object clitic dou
 bling in Spanish\, cf. Gabriel & Rinke 2010).
LOCATION:GR-06/07\, English Faculty Building
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR