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Author Gianollo, Chiara.

Title Indefinites between Latin and Romance / Chiara Gianollo
Published Oxford, United Kingdom : Oxford University Press, 2018

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Description 1 online resource
Series Oxford studies in diachronic and historical linguistics ; 33
Oxford linguistics
Oxford linguistics.
Oxford studies in diachronic and historical linguistics ; 33.
Contents The grammar of indefinites -- Specific and epistemic indefinites in Latin -- Aliquis from Latin to Romance -- Indefinites and negation in the history of Latin -- Developments in negative and polarity-sensitive contexts from Latin to Romance
Summary This book investigates the syntactic and semantic development of a selection of indefinite pronouns and determiners (such as aliquis 'some', nullus 'no', and nemo 'no one') between Latin and the Romance languages. Although these elements have undergone significant diachronic change since the Classical Latin period, the modern Romance languages show a remarkable degree of similarity in the way their systems of indefinites have evolved and are structured today. In this volume, Chiara Gianollo draws on data from Classical and Late Latin texts, and from electronic corpora of the early stages of various Romance languages, to propose a new account of these similarities. The focus is primarily on Late Latin: at this stage, the grammar of indefinites already shows a number of changes, which are homogeneously transmitted to the daughter languages, leading to parallelism in the various emerging Romance systems. The volume demonstrates the value of using methods and models from synchronic theoretical linguistics for investigating diachronic phenomena, as well as the importance of diachronic research in understanding the nature of crosslinguistic variation and language change
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Subject Romance languages -- Grammar, Comparative -- Latin
Latin language -- Grammar, Comparative -- Romance
FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDY -- French.
FOREIGN LANGUAGE STUDY -- Romance Languages (Other)
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9780191850448
0191850446
9780192540799
0192540793