Subject: new books : syntax

new from holland academic graphics : object positions in benue-kwa : papers from a workshop at leiden university edited by rose-marie dechaine & victor manfredi pb . xii + 253 pp . isbn 90-5569 - 031 - 7 [ hil publications , 4 . ] publication date : august 1997 all papers were presented at the niger - congo syntax & semantics workshop , no . 7 ( june 1994 ) pdf sample article available on the web or on request price nlg 40 ( approx . $ 20 ) excl . p&p information : < mail @ hag . nl > or < http : / / www . hag . nl > abstract : ever since greenberg 's 1963 classification of niger - congo - - the largest of africa 's four language families - - the relationship between the kwa and benue - congo branches has remained puzzling to historical linguists . by contrast , the past decade has seen emerging consensus on several aspects = of the grammatical typology of the benue - kwa area , which includes the major west african languages = c0k = e1n , = c8w = e8 , yor = f9b = e1 , = c8do and = cc = gbo , as well as the whole bantu group of central , eastern and southern africa . the twelve papers explore the unity and diversity of benue - kwa by investigating issues in the syntax of objects : verb serialization , verb extensions , light verbs , object agreement , object shift and double object = s . half of the contributors speak the languages they study ; most work in the principles-and - parameters tradition of generative grammar , including very recent perspectives of minimalism and antisymmetry . all the papers sugges = t innovations in these theories to accommodate african data , much of which appears here for the first time . holland academic graphics po box 53292 2505 ag the hague the netherlands phone : + 31 70 448 0203 fax : + 31 70 448 0177 http : / / www . hag . nl
