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Comparative reconstruction in Romance syntax

Comparative reconstruction in Romance syntax Abstract Although not always openly acknowledging that they do so, scholars in Romance linguistics have, ever since Diez' time, practised comparative reconstruction in phonology and morphology.1 Thus, one reconstructs, for example, a nine-vowel system for Proto-Romance, or a set of verbal forms, e.g. in the present tense for ‘to wish’, . Neither in Romance nor in other fields has this type of reconstruction been practised on the syntactic level, especially in the last hundred or so years. In the earlier years of Indo-European comparative reconstruction, scholars were not so timid, and it is well known that August Schleicher reconstructed an entire fable in his version of Proto-Indo-European.2 Cf. H. Pedersen, Linguistic Science in the Nineteenth Century (Cambridge, Mass., 1931), pp.268-269. Unfortunately, soon after Schleicher's time, it became evident that his reconstruction of I-E phonology was not satisfactory; from this, it was concluded, rather illogically, that the reconstruction of texts must be an inadmissible procedure. So strong has prejudice been against the reconstruction of utterances longer than a single word, that W. Ph. Lehmann, in setting up the I-E sentence ‘the cow comes’, was very apologetic about doing so.3 Language XXXIV (1958), p. 188. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Acta Linguistica Hafniensia: International Taylor & Francis

Comparative reconstruction in Romance syntax

Hall, Robert A.
Acta Linguistica Hafniensia: International , Volume 11 (1): 8 – Jan 1, 1968
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Comparative reconstruction in Romance syntax

Abstract

Abstract Although not always openly acknowledging that they do so, scholars in Romance linguistics have, ever since Diez' time, practised comparative reconstruction in phonology and morphology.1 Thus, one reconstructs, for example, a nine-vowel system for Proto-Romance, or a set of verbal forms, e.g. in the present tense for ‘to wish’, . Neither in Romance nor in other fields has this type of reconstruction been practised on the syntactic level, especially in the last...
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Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Copyright
Copyright Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
ISSN
1949-0763
eISSN
0374-0463
DOI
10.1080/03740463.1968.10411463
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Abstract Although not always openly acknowledging that they do so, scholars in Romance linguistics have, ever since Diez' time, practised comparative reconstruction in phonology and morphology.1 Thus, one reconstructs, for example, a nine-vowel system for Proto-Romance, or a set of verbal forms, e.g. in the present tense for ‘to wish’, . Neither in Romance nor in other fields has this type of reconstruction been practised on the syntactic level, especially in the last hundred or so years. In the earlier years of Indo-European comparative reconstruction, scholars were not so timid, and it is well known that August Schleicher reconstructed an entire fable in his version of Proto-Indo-European.2 Cf. H. Pedersen, Linguistic Science in the Nineteenth Century (Cambridge, Mass., 1931), pp.268-269. Unfortunately, soon after Schleicher's time, it became evident that his reconstruction of I-E phonology was not satisfactory; from this, it was concluded, rather illogically, that the reconstruction of texts must be an inadmissible procedure. So strong has prejudice been against the reconstruction of utterances longer than a single word, that W. Ph. Lehmann, in setting up the I-E sentence ‘the cow comes’, was very apologetic about doing so.3 Language XXXIV (1958), p. 188.

Journal

Acta Linguistica Hafniensia: International – Taylor & Francis

Published: Jan 1, 1968

References

  • Terminología linguistica: pro-complementi
  • a syntax of its own
  • Contribution à la protohistoire des articles ille et ipse dans les langues romanes
  • The Roumanian Definite Article and Noun-Phrase
  • II latino volgare come esempio di protolingua