Changes In Syntax Research Articles

C. P. E. Bach Studies (review)

Reviewed by: C. P. E. Bach Studies Doris B. Powers C. P. E. Bach Studies. Edited by Annette Richards. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006. [xii, 268 p. ISBN-10: 0-5218-3629-8; ISBN-13: 9780521836296. $90.] Illustrations, index, music examples, notes. That winds of change in C. P. E. Bach research are actively blowing across folios of his music and pages of words written about him become imminently evident in this volume of essays edited by Annette Richards. Its nine articles explore themes that have received minimal treatment until recent years—namely, Bach's lively connections with North German literary circles, aesthetic concerns, issues of his reception, treatment of his vocal music and contrapuntal compositions, and the intriguing discovery of the 1772 catalog of his keyboard works. The concept of the book emerged from a conference of papers and concerts, German Orpheus: C. P. E. Bach and Musical Culture in the Late 18th Century, held in February 1999 at Cornell University. Though this volume is not a publication of those papers, essays appearing in it by Richard Kramer, Annette Richards, and Richard Will originate from earlier versions presented at the conference. Given the delightful ingenuity of C. P. E. Bach, a more imaginative title for this volume might have been in order. More important, the existing title duplicates that of another collection of essays and a standard staple in Bach literature, C. P. E. Bach Studies, edited by Stephen L. Clark (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1988). One hopes this duplication of titles, whose volumes stand beside each other on library shelves, will not create confusion among readers. Kramer's essay, "Diderot's Paradoxe and C. P. E. Bach's Empfindungen," thoughtfully treats ideas of these two contemporaries who nearly met in 1774 and who held similar ideas about sensibility (Empfindsamkeit). Kramer explores the eighteenth-century notion of music as a language of feeling (Empfindung) through a discussion of Diderot's Paradoxe and two of Bach's related late works, Fantasia in F-sharp Minor for clavier, Wq. 67 / H. 300 and Sonata in F-sharp Minor for violin and keyboard, Wq. 80 / H. 536 ("Empfindungen"). The performer, Kramer concludes, "must then convince us that we are hearing not the player in mask but rather the beating heart of the music and its living soul" (p. 24). Kramer's careful, clear writing assists the reader through a complex topic. Tobias Plebuch focuses on the debate about aesthetics of instrumental music in his fascinating lengthy study, "Dark Fantasies and Dawn of the Self: Gerstenberg's Monologues for C. P. E. Bach's C Minor Fantasia." In 1787, H. W. Gerstenberg, Sturm und Drang poet, set two different texts—one from Hamlet, the other from Plato—to movement three of Bach's Sonata for keyboard (1753), Wq. 63.6 / H. 75. In his two-part essay, Plebuch delves in considerable depth on the disintegration of poetic language surrounding the keen interest in Shakespeare in the 1770s and provides an analysis of the experiment. He also considers interpretive questions dealing with images of light and darkness. An appendix contains a reprint of the entire music and texts of the experiment. Richards's contribution, "An Enduring Monument: C. P. E. Bach and the Musical Sublime" concentrates on Bach's stylistic achievement of sublimity. She discusses epitaphs by Empfindsamkeit poet F. G. Klopstock on a monument honoring Bach. In an earlier comparison of their styles, J. F. Reichardt states that Bach stood as a musical counterpart to Klopstock, who was known for his irregular meter, difficult syntax, and emotive language, just as Bach used surprising twists and turns, abrupt changes in harmonic syntax, and expression of feelings. Richards examines two of Bach's choral works, Heilig, Wq. 217 / H. 778, and Klopstocks Morgengesang, [End Page 271] Wq. 239 / H. 779, to understand the relationship between his musical syntax and sublimity as well as the perceptions of sublimity in his music by contemporary listeners. Richard Will considers literary and theological issues in his chapter, "Reason and Revelation in C. P. E. Bach's Resurrection Oratorio." Because C. W. Ramler wrote the text for Bach's Die Auferstehung und Himmelfahrt Jesu, Wq. 240 / H. 777, Will investigates...

Grammation, regrammation, and degrammation

Taking Heine’s (2003) characterization of Grammaticalization as its point of departure, this paper proposes an elementary framework, and corresponding terminology, for the description of the most common types of historical change in grammar (changes in content, content syntax, expression, and morphosyntax) and the types of innovation that give rise to them (neologism, extension, adoption, reanalysis, monolingual and bilingual). These basic conceptual tools of the historical linguist are illustrated with an analytic account of the development of the Russian tense–aspect system, from prehistory through the attested period. The account includes a plausible explication of the remarkable historical reduction in tense–aspect paradigms, from eight in Old Russian through five in Middle Russian to three in the modern language.

First language attrition and syntactic subjects: A study of Greek and Italian near-native speakers of English

In this paper we present some results from an experimental study that we have been conducting into the effects of syntactic attrition on the L1 of Greek and Italian speakers who have achieved near-native proficiency in their L2 (English) but still use their L1 on a regular basis. In particular, we test the hypothesis, developed on the basis of assumptions regarding syntactic modularity, that the changes in L1 syntax will be restricted to the interface with the conceptual /intentional cognitive systems. The area of investigation is the domain of grammatical subjects in Greek and Italian. More specifically, we tested the participants on the production and interpretation of null and overt subjects, and of preverbal and postverbal subjects. We also elicited grammaticality judgments on subject extraction and subject position in various syntactic contexts. In this paper we report on the results of one of the production tasks (of preverbal and postverbal subjects) and two interpretation tasks. Attrition effects are found in the production of preverbal subjects in the Greek group whereas Italian speakers show attrition effects in the interpretation of overt pronominal subjects. We argue that these results are in the right direction, that is, that semantic features are vulnerable in language attrition whereas syntactic options remain intact.

English in Nineteenth-Century England: An Introduction (review)

Reviewed by: English in nineteenth-century England: An introduction by Manfred Görlach James A. Walker English in nineteenth-century England: An introduction. By Manfred Görlach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Pp. xiii, 338. English of the nineteenth century has not received as much attention as that of earlier periods, no doubt because of its relative recency or perhaps the sheer amount of written data available (7–9). This book, an overview of developments in English in England between 1800 and 1900, is a preliminary attempt at redressing this imbalance. In addition to discussing a number of (socio) linguistic features of this period, Görlach provides 98 texts (culled from a database of 660) representative of various genres and styles. G states (viii) that the book should serve as a ‘handy companion volume’ to more comprehensive surveys, but the inclusion of 82 exercises suggests that he also intended it to be used as a course textbook. In the introduction (1–25), Gdiscusses the motivation for the book and outlines the historical foundations of nineteenth century English. Ch. 2 (26–43) deals with the differences between written and spoken varieties, as well as social and regional varieties and contemporaneous attitudes towards them. Ch. 3 (44–64) discusses spelling and spelling reform, conventions of punctuation and pronunciation, and prosodic considerations. Chs. 4 (65–68) and 5 (69–91) survey the use of and changes in inflectional morphology and syntax, respectively, and identify the features that differentiate nineteenth- from twentieth-century varieties of English. The lexicon is discussed in Ch. 6 (92–138), including interdialectal and foreign borrowing, word-formation, lexical semantics and semantic change, and onomastics. Ch. 7 (139–63) provides an outline of different genres and styles of texts which serves as an organizing principle for the texts reproduced in Ch. 9 (165–285). Ch. 10 (286–302) gives background information on the texts and their authors. Ch. 8 (164) lists preliminary conclusions. As G himself admits (5), the boundaries of this survey are rather arbitrary: No sociolinguistic or historical landmarks coincide neatly with the years 1800 and 1900, and extraterritorial varieties of English were becoming more and more influential in the development of the language (1, 102). As a result, the usefulness of this survey as a textbook in a course on the history of English is lessened (except perhaps as supplementary reading), although it could serve as a guide to future research: Many of the suggested exercises are more appropriate as questions for large research projects than as course assignments. Immediately apparent is the need for more work on morphosyntactic change. If, as G suggests (70–71), the primary difference between nineteenth- and twentieth- century varieties of English in this area is quantitative rather than qualitative, it is obvious that more detailed and methodologically consistent statistical analysis is called for. This book’s (albeit cursory) listing of various morphosyntactic features, coupled with the extensive list of references, would be a useful starting-point for such research. James A. Walker York University Copyright © 2001 Linguistic Society of America

Permissiveness in the learning and development of song syntax in swamp sparrows

Vocal learning in swamp sparrows, Melospiza georgiana , is subject to a host of sensory and motor limitations. One such limitation is that young swamp sparrows almost invariably crystallize their songs with a simple trilled syntax, irrespective of the syntax of vocal models from which they learn. A striking exception to this pattern was recently identified by Podos (1996, Animal Behaviour , 51 , 1061–1070), who found that large-scale organizational changes in vocal syntax, including the production of an intermittent or ‘broken’ syntax, were produced when birds faced limits on vocal performance capacities during motor ontogeny. Our goal in the present study was to determine whether song models with broken syntax could serve as suitable training models for young swamp sparrows, and, if so, if broken syntax could be faithfully reproduced. We hand-reared 10 male swamp sparrows and exposed them to control, rapid and broken song models. Control song models were copied with a high degree of accuracy, as in previous studies. Rapid song models were copied with deficiencies that suggested performance limits on vocal production; such deficiencies included the production of songs with broken syntax and the production of songs in which notes were dropped out as songs progressed. Broken songs proved suitable as training models. Furthermore, copies of broken song models were crystallized either with normal or with broken syntax. These data identify an unexpected direction of permissiveness in the types of songs swamp sparrows will memorize and accurately reproduce, and also point to a possible proximate basis for syntactical changes in the evolution of sparrow songs.

Historical English: On the occasion of Karl Brunner's 100th birthday Ed. by Manfred Markus (review)

BOOK NOTICES 197 Magnus Ljung. Stockholm: Bokf örlaget Trevi, 1988. Pp. 193. This book is largely based on two studies of English borrowings in the Swedish print media carried out by the author in 1983-84 and 1985. The first of these was part of a larger investigation which also tested speakers' acceptance of particular English borrowings and their pronunciation of English loanwords. The investigations showed the computer field as the most receptive area (four to five times as many borrowings as any other field), followed by popular music and technical fields, with film, economics , 'general culture', etc., trailing far behind. L sampled two different computer magazines in the 1983-84 study but excluded computer publications from his later study in order to include other specialized areas of interest (music, film, and economics) as well as weeklies and other publications of more general interest. Predictably , his lists of the most frequent English loanwords in Swedish (99-101) reflect the categories of publications sampled, thus leaving open to doubt the degree to which his findings represent the overall state of affairs with respect to English influence in contemporary Swedish. L provides a conventional taxonomy of types of loans (60) around which the book is largely organized. The most significant aspect of this classification is the broad division into direct and indirect loans and L's discussion of construction loans as a subcategory of the latter. Among the more interesting of the English influences reported are those which show reanalysis ofEnglish forms and meanings. Examples include the loanword city used generically to mean 'city center, particularly of a big city' as in Stockholms city, and lama ankor 'lame ducks', which results from a partial loan translation and an extension in the meaning of the Swedish adjective lam, originally 'paralysed'. In construction loans L detects changes in Swedish syntax which follow English models. The verb innehâlla 'contain' (in the primary sense of holding something) now has the additional sense 'restrain, hold back', as in holjen som kan innehâlla en hardsmalta 'the shielding which can contain a meltdown'. Similarly, the verb sälja 'sell', which formerly had only a straightforward active meaning ('She sells books'), now also occurs in constructions with a middle sense, e.g. Boken scdjer bra 'the book is selling well.' Instances of the use of the second -person singular pronoun du in an impersonal sense (instead of usual Swedish man 'one') are also reported. Since Sweden is a country with a long history of sensitivity to foreign linguistic influences and of substantial receptivity to them as well, L is careful to point out that, although some fields may be very much affected by an influx of English borrowings, the effect on Swedish as a whole is not particularly great, the average level of borrowing for all texts sampled being only 0.05%. The greatest degree of receptivity to most borrowings is exhibited by younger speakers . In a section of his concluding chapter L attempts to reassure Swedish purists that the language is in no sense impaired by the loans and that there is no impending creolization or language death. The bulk of English borrowings in Swedish are, according to this study, indirect rather than direct loans. These more subtle influences do not disturb Swedish sensibilities with respect to orthography or pronunciation and are, for L, analogous to internal semantic changes in the language. The book consists of six chapters, notes, bibliography , and a listing ofmany ofthe loanwords identified in L's studies. The principal findings of L's research are reported in the chapters entitled 'English in Swedish' (56-85), 'How much English is there?' (86-101), and 'Who approves of English borrowings?' (102-135). L has produced a useful if somewhat selective study of English influence on Swedish in the past decade . This is a good example of a genre often seen in Sweden and elsewhere in Europe, a book about linguistic phenomena which is accessible both to specialists and to laypersons. The book is written in Swedish. [Ronald H. Southerland , The University of Calgary.] Historical English: On the occasion of Karl Brunner's 100th birthday. Ed. by Manfred Markus. (Innsbrucker Beiträge zur Kulturwissenschaft, Anglistische Reihe...

The Dynamic Incremental Compiler of APL\3000

Most APL implementations to date have been interpretive because of the dynamic nature of the language. APL\3000 employs a Dynamic Incremental Compiler to allow all the flexibility of change afforded by interpretation, but giving the added bonus of faster execution for programs run more than once. APL\3000 compiles code on a statement-by-statement basis as needed, saving the code and reusing it where possible. A statement is recompiled only when made necessary by changes in syntax or changes in variable bindings. The compiler produces optimized code by employing the Abrams techniques of Drag-along and Beating.