The architecture of the human language faculty has been one of the main foci of the linguistic research of the last half century. This branch of linguistics, broadly known as Generative Grammar, is concerned with the formulation of explanatory formal accounts of linguistic phenomena with the ulterior goal of gaining insight into the properties of the 'language organ'. The series comprises high quality monographs and collected volumes that address such issues. The topics in this series range from phonology to semantics, from syntax to information structure, from mathematical linguistics to studies of the lexicon.

This book brings together papers on various aspects of prosodic development from a generative linguistic perspective. It addresses issues such as the relationship between tone, stress and quantity, the evidence for prosodic change from metrics and discusses the role of analogy, language contact, and language acquisition in change. The unique combination of different methodologies and perspectives investigating development in prosodic systems provides a new and broader scope on historical linguistics.

Autorentext

Paula Fikkert teaches at the Dutch Department of the University of Nijmegen.

Haike Jacobs is Associate Professor at the University of Nijmegen and the Free University of Amsterdam.