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Diachronic syntax and learnability: free relatives in thirteenth-century Spanish1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

María-Luisa Rivero
María-Luisa Rivero
Affiliation:
Department of Linguistics, University of Ottawa
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Abstract

Diachronic change emerges from the construction of grammars by successive generations of learners by exposure to primary data. Learners receive little information concerning what is ungrammatical in their language. To propose learnable systems, linguists should use positive data and not depend on negative information (the learnability criterion). Learnability is relevant to historical linguistics under the view that links diachronic change to grammar construction by the learner. This perspective is used to establish the system of two types of free relatives in thirteenth-century Spanish (quanto que vs. quanto-constructions), and the changes that led to the disappearance of the first type in later centuries.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Linguistics , Volume 20 , Issue 1 , March 1984 , pp. 81 - 129
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1984

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