What does it mean for a language to have flexible constituent order, and what are the
sources of variation in this domain, both within and across languages? This thesis …

Languages are known to differ in how many orderings of major constituents are
grammatical, as well as how interchangeable these orders are, a property often referred to …

Constituent order systems have been shown to reduce in flexibility due to language contact
(Heine 2008). However, a causal link between contact and reduced flexibility has not yet …

Transitivity is often analyzed from the point of view of the formal and functional factors that
shape morphosyntax. The contribution of language contact is not often highlighted. This …

Mechanisms of language change have usually been categorized in terms of either their
structural or their societal properties. At the structural level, a well-established distinction is …

Starting with Wilkins (1996), the role of morphology in language-contact situations has been
gaining significance for the understanding of morphology and language contact. Initially, the …

Contact between languages often leads to linguistic changes. Although the social factors
and the typological characteristics of the languages influence the change process, the …

It is almost a commonplace that word order in the midfield of German clauses is flexible.
Although statements to this effect do not claim that “anything goes”, they suggest that word …

This volume explores word order change within the framework of diachronic generative
syntax. Word order is at the core of natural language grammatical systems, linking syntax …

One of the assumptions in contact linguistics is that typological congruence should be taken
seriously when it comes to model borrowing, transfer or copying processes (Weinreich 1953; …