1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910810828103321

Autore

Stolz Thomas

Titolo

Spatial interrogatives in Europe and beyond : where, whither, whence / / Thomas Stolz [and four others]

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Berlin, [Germany] : , : De Gruyter Mouton, , 2017

©2017

ISBN

3-11-053833-4

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (778 pages) : illustrations, tables

Collana

Studia Typologica, , 1617-2957 ; ; Volume 20

Disciplina

410

Soggetti

Linguistics

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Includes indexes.

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- Preface and Acknowledgments -- Contents -- List of Abbreviations -- List of Diagrams -- List of Schemes -- List of Tables -- 1. Introduction -- 2. The formal relations of spatial interrogatives -- 3. WHERE, WHITHER, and WHENCE in the languages of Europe -- 4. The big world -- 5. Spatial relations across sentence-types -- 6. Conclusions -- Sources -- Appendix: Language sample -- Index of Authors -- Index of Languages -- Index of Subjects

Sommario/riassunto

The extant generalizations about the grammar of space rely heavily on the analyses of declarative sentences. There is a need to check whether these generalizations also hold in the domain of interrogation. To this end this book analyzes data from some 450 languages (including non-standard varieties). The focus is on paradigms of spatial interrogatives such as English where, whither and whence and their internal organization. These paradigms are checked for recurrent patterns of morphological mismatches (such as syncretism) and different degrees of complexity (e.g. the number of segments). The data-base consists of a large parallel literary corpus (Le petit prince and translations thereof) which is complemented by further sources of information such as descriptive grammars. The data are analyzed from a synchronic perspective. However, diachronic issues are addressed unsystematically, too. It is shown that the distribution of phenomena which characterize paradigms of spatial interrogatives are subject to areal-linguistic factors. This is the first typological study of spatial



interrogatives. It provides new insights for students of the grammar of space, morphological paradigms, and language typology.