| Summary: | "This volume advances research on diachronic alignment typology across the Indo-European family, showing the breadth and fertility of this field. It brings together contributions from leading specialists in Indo-European languages to explore the macro- and micro-dynamic factors contributing to variety and change in alignment and argument realisation. The chapters included in the book explore synchronic and diachronic dimensions of alignment morphosyntax based on a broad range of data from Anatolian, Indo-Iranian, Greek, Italic (including Romance), Armenian, and Slavic. Few existing studies deal with variation and change in the alignment typology across languages belonging to one linguistic family, and the present volume aims to fill this gap. Alignment is taken to include both basic alignment patterns associated with major construction types as well as various valency-decreasing constructions, such as passives, anticausatives, and impersonals. The chapters range from broad comparative studies based on data from several branches to careful studies of specific constructions in individual languages, with a strong empirical focus, partly drawing on qualitative and partly on quantitative methods. The volume contributes to a more precise understanding of the respective roles played by analogy/extension, reanalysis, and areal factors in alignment change, demonstrating the versatility of argument realisation morphosyntax in genetically related languages"--Publisher's description.
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