Comparative and Diachronic Perspectives on Romance Syntax

Book excerpt: The volume brings together fifteen papers focusing on the morphosyntax of different Romance varieties. It is based on papers presented at the workshop bearing the same title held at the University of Bucharest in November 2015 and is dedicated to Professor Martin Maiden of the University of Oxford in honour of his 60th birthday. The contributions tackle different theoretical issues concerning current linguistic theory (relevant both for comparative and diachronic approaches), including parameters, features and their hierarchical organization, word order changes, the level of verb movement in different varieties, inflected infinitives, clitic placement and clitic doubling, ethical datives, and personal subject pronouns, among others. As such, the volume represents diverse theoretical approaches to addressing a number of key morphological and syntactic issues in the morphosyntactic development of the Romance languages, drawing on modern research methods and current linguistic theory, with a clear preference for parametric syntax. The most significant areas of grammar are well-represented here. The volume will appeal to advanced graduate and postgraduate students in diachronic linguistics, theoretical linguistics, and Romance linguistics, as well as researchers in the fields of historical and typological linguistics, morphosyntactic theory, and the history of the Romance languages.