Overview

This monograph presents a general picture of the evolution of IE verbal systems within a coherent cognitive framework. The work encompasses all the language families of the IE phylum, from prehistory to present day languages. Inspired by the ideas of Roman Jakobson and Gustave Guillaume the authors relate tense and aspect to underlying cognitive processes, and show that verbal systems have a staged development of time representations (chronogenesis). They view linguistic change as systemic and trace the evolution of the earliest tense systems by (a) aspectual split and (b) aspectual merger from the original aspectual contrasts of PIE, the evidence for such systemic change showing clearly in the paradigmatic morphology of the daughter languages. The nineteen chapters cover first the ancient documentation, then those families whose historical data are from a more recent date. The last chapters deal with the systemic evolution of languages that are descended from ancient forbears such as Sanskrit, Greek, and Latin, and are completed by a chapter on the practical and theoretical conclusions of the work.

Full Product Details

Author:   John Hewson (Memorial University of Newfoundland) ,  Vit Bubenik (Memorial University of Newfoundland)
Publisher:   John Benjamins Publishing Co
Imprint:   John Benjamins Publishing Co
Volume:   145
Weight:   0.875kg
ISBN:  

9789027236494

ISBN 10:   9027236496
Pages:   403
Publication Date:   06 March 1997
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

1. Authors' Preface; 2. List of Abbreviations; 3. Chapter 1: Tense and Aspect: Description and Theory (by Hewson, John); 4. Section A: Languages with the original three-aspect system: present - aorist - perfect; 5. Chapter 2: The Verbal System of Ancient Greek (by Hewson, John); 6. Chapter 3: The Verbal System of Vedic and Classical Sanskrit (by Bubenik, Vit); 7. Section B: Languages with the original present - aorist system and innovative perfect; 8. Chapter 4: The Verbal System of Classical Armenian (by Bubenik, Vit); 9. Chapter 5: The Verbal System of Old Church Slavic (by Bubenik, Vit); 10. Chapter 6: The Verbal System of Albanian (by Bubenik, Vit); 11. Chapter 7: The Verbal System of Tocharian (by Bubenik, Vit); 12. Section C: Languages with a three-tense system; 13. Chapter 8: Tense and Aspect in Baltic (by Hewson, John); 14. Chapter 9: Tense and Aspect in Celtic (by Hewson, John); 15. Chapter 10: The Latin Verbal System (by Hewson, John); 16. Section D: Languages which merged the original aorist and perfect into the preterit; 17. Chapter 11: The Verbal System of Germanic (Gothic, Old English) (by Hewson, John); 18. Chapter 12: The Verbal System of Anatolian (Hittite) (by Bubenik, Vit); 19. Section E: Later Developments; 20. Chapter 13: From Ancient to Modern Greek (by Bubenik, Vit); 21. Chapter 14: Development of Modern Indic Tense-Aspect System (by Bubenik, Vit); 22. Chapter 15: Development of Modern Slavic Tense-Aspect System (by Bubenik, Vit); 23. Chapter 16: Development of Modern Iranian Tense-Aspect System (by Bubenik, Vit); 24. Chapter 17: From Latin to Modern Romance (by Hewson, John); 25. Chapter 18: Tense and Aspect in Modern Germanic (by Hewson, John); 26. Chapter 19: Conclusions (by Hewson, John); 27. Appendices; 28. References; 29. Indexes

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