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Introduction: New perspectives on diachronic syntax in North Germanic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 September 2019

David Håkansson*
Affiliation:
Department of Scandinavian Languages, Uppsala University, P.O. Box 527, SE-751 20 Uppsala, Swedendavid.hakansson@nordiska.uu.se
Erik Magnusson Petzell
Affiliation:
Institute for Language and Folklore, Vallgatan 22, SE-411 16 Gothenburg, Swedenerik.petzell@sprakochfolkminnen.se
Elisabet Engdahl
Affiliation:
Department of Swedish, University of Gothenburg, P.O. Box 200, SE-405 30 Gothenburg, Swedenelisabet.engdahl@svenska.gu.se
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Extract

This special issue of Nordic Journal of Linguistics is dedicated to diachronic generative syntax in the North Germanic languages. With the introduction of generative grammar in the late 1950s the historical perspective became less prominent within linguistics. Instead, contemporary language, normally represented by the researcher’s own intuitions, became the unmarked empirical basis within the generative field, although there were some early pioneering studies in generative historical syntax (e.g. Traugott 1972). It was not until the introduction of the Principles and Parameters theory in the 1990s that diachronic syntax emerged as an important domain of inquiry for generative linguists. Since then, the study of syntactic change has added a temporal dimension to the overall enterprise to better understand the nature of variation in human language.

Type
Introduction
Copyright
© Nordic Association of Linguistics 2019 

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