What do you think?
Rate this book
The Synchrony and Diachrony of the Balkan Infinitive: A Study in Areal, General, and Historical Linguistics
OUT-OF-PRINT, "This study offers a comprehensive and illuminating account of one of the characteristics shared to some degree by the languages of the Balkan peninsula - Greek, Albanian, Macedonian, Bulgarian, Serbo-Croatian and Romanian - namely the loss of the infinitive and its replacement by finite verb forms. Dr Joseph meticulously examines the documentary evidence for this loss and, in the light of his findings, many of the oversimplifications, misinterpretations and omissions in earlier accounts are rectified. Many of the issues raised in his discussion, for example how 'infinitive' or 'finiteness' should be defined, have important implications for synchronic syntactic theory and description. In addition, the study is of significance for diachronic linguistics, for it makes a valuable contribution to the debate on constraining possible syntactic changes and syntactic borrowing. This study will also offer insights to linguistics interested in areal typology, since it is one of the
Hardcover
First published September 29, 1983
4 people want to read
About the author
Brian D. Joseph
30 books3 followersDr. Joseph is a Professor of Linguistics at The Ohio State University. His main areas of interest include historical linguistics, Greek linguistics, Balkan linguistics, and morphological theory. His secondary areas of interest include language and ethnicity, Sanskrit linguistics, and Indo-European linguistics in general.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
July 20, 2007
Brian D. Joseph's THE SYNCHRONY AND DIACHRONY OF THE BALKAN INFINITIVE is a study of that curious feature of Albanian, Greek, Romanian, and Macedonian-Bulgarian: the near-total loss of the infinitive in favour of dependent clauses. A 350-page monograph, this is a substantial work. Thank goodness that this 1983 text will finally appear in paperback in 1983, making it accessible to a wide readership.
Joseph begins with attempting to reach a definition of finiteness and infinitives, a task much harder than it sounds. This is followed by four chapters on the history of the infinitive in Greek, Albanian, South Slavonic (one chapter in which Macedonian and Bulgarian are treated separately), and Romanian. As a student of historical linguistics, I found this portion very entertaining. The chapter on Romanian is especially good, as Joseph examines all dialects of Romanian, not just Daco-Romanian, and doesn't hammer the reader with Dacian Continuity Theory like all too many historical grammars of Romanian. After presenting the state of the infinitive in individual languages, Joseph then speaks of the possible causes of the loss. This means causes within each language, such as the eventual homophony of the active infinitive and the 3 sg pres. act. ending in Greek, as well as areal convergence. He does an excellent job of recounting the various schools of thought on the matter.
The bulk of the book is simply tieing together all of the various researches on the Balkan infinitive, but in the last chapter "New perspectives" Joseph gives his own take. For example, the syntactical ramifications of the loss of the infinitive are considerable. Also, many other changes in the Balkan languages may be traced to the loss of the infinitive, such as the use of participles in verbal noun constructions in Romanian and Albanian ("de facut", "per te bere").
A major complaint I have about the book is its typesetting: though published by the usually dependable Cambridge University Press, the book was seemingly written up on a typewriter, resulting in text that is unpleasant to read. Still, this is the definitive work on the subject and merits reading for anyone curious about the Balkan sprachbund.
Joseph begins with attempting to reach a definition of finiteness and infinitives, a task much harder than it sounds. This is followed by four chapters on the history of the infinitive in Greek, Albanian, South Slavonic (one chapter in which Macedonian and Bulgarian are treated separately), and Romanian. As a student of historical linguistics, I found this portion very entertaining. The chapter on Romanian is especially good, as Joseph examines all dialects of Romanian, not just Daco-Romanian, and doesn't hammer the reader with Dacian Continuity Theory like all too many historical grammars of Romanian. After presenting the state of the infinitive in individual languages, Joseph then speaks of the possible causes of the loss. This means causes within each language, such as the eventual homophony of the active infinitive and the 3 sg pres. act. ending in Greek, as well as areal convergence. He does an excellent job of recounting the various schools of thought on the matter.
The bulk of the book is simply tieing together all of the various researches on the Balkan infinitive, but in the last chapter "New perspectives" Joseph gives his own take. For example, the syntactical ramifications of the loss of the infinitive are considerable. Also, many other changes in the Balkan languages may be traced to the loss of the infinitive, such as the use of participles in verbal noun constructions in Romanian and Albanian ("de facut", "per te bere").
A major complaint I have about the book is its typesetting: though published by the usually dependable Cambridge University Press, the book was seemingly written up on a typewriter, resulting in text that is unpleasant to read. Still, this is the definitive work on the subject and merits reading for anyone curious about the Balkan sprachbund.
Displaying 1 of 1 review