This book is all about the captivating ability that the human language has to express intricately logical (mathematical) meanings using tiny (microsemantic) morphemes as utilities. Languages mark meanings with identical inferences using identical particles and these particles thus creep up in a wide array of expressions. Because of their multi-tasking capacity to express seemingly disparate meanings, they are dubbed Superparticles. These particles are perfect windows into the interlock of several grammatical modules and the nature of the interaction of these modules through time. With a firm footing in the module where grammatical bones are built and assembled (narrow morpho-syntax), superparticles acquire varied interpretation (in the conceptual-intentional module semantics) depending on the structure they fea- ture in. What is more, some of the interpretations these particles trigger are inferential and belong, under the standard account, to the realm of pragmatics. How can suchtiny particles, rarely exceeding a syllable of sound, have such powerful and over-arching effects across the inter-modular grammatical space? This is the Platonic background against which this book is set.

Provides a novel systematic approach to formal diachronic semantics, pragmatics and syntax Evaluates and analyses the historical trends of semantic, syntactic change not only across the Indo-European family but also in Japonic Explores and helps to understand diachronic implicational relations in the grammatical system of logical expressions encoded with identical morphemes

Autorentext

Moreno Mitrovic is currently Alexander von Humboldt Fellow at the Leibniz Centre for General Linguistics (ZAS) in Berlin. He has received his doctorate from Jesus College, University of Cambridge, and has held positions in the US, Japan, Austria, Germany, Cyprus, Slovenia and the UK. As co-founder of Bled Institute, a non-profit research and development NGO, he also works in promotion of science and social mobility.

Inhalt
Chapter 1. Introduction.- Chapter 2. Construction.- Chapter 3. Interpretation.- Chapter 4. Grammaticalisation.- Chapter 5. Conclusion.- Historical Texts.- Index.