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The Use of Again in 19th‐Century English versus Present‐Day English
Author(s) -
Beck Sigrid,
Berezovskaya Polina,
Pflugfelder Katja
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
syntax
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.587
H-Index - 24
eISSN - 1467-9612
pISSN - 1368-0005
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9612.2009.00124.x
Subject(s) - adverb , linguistics , syntax , semantics (computer science) , visibility , history , computer science , mathematics , philosophy , geography , programming language , verb , meteorology
. The central claim of this paper is that the use of the adverb again has changed between 19th‐century English and present‐day English. In particular, restitutive uses were more easily and generally available in the 19th century than they are now. This diachronic change provides evidence for a lexical parameter governing the behavior of adverbs at the syntax/semantics interface. The parameter relates surface form to possible interpretations and thus introduces an interesting notion of visibility into linguistic theory.