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Perspectives on Historical Syntax
Edited by Carlotta Viti
[Studies in Language Companion Series 169] 2015
► pp. 317–340

Syntactic diversity and change in Austroasiatic languages

| University of Zurich

This study looks at the syntactic diversity of Austroasiatic languages and seeks possible explanations for the development of this diversity. With historical data available only for a small number of languages of the family, the evidence points to two main factors triggering syntactic change, namely reanalysis and contact influence from neighboring languages. The insights gained from the languages with a recorded history of over a thousand years can be applied to other scenarios and help us understand the development of Austroasiatic languages with no historical data.

Keywords: Austroasiatic languages, comparative syntax, historical syntax, language change, language contact
Published online: 29 April 2015
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https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.169.13jen
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