"This book provides a comprehensive treatment of the syntax and semantics of a single linguistic phenomenon - the NP-strategy for expressing reciprocity - in synchronic, diachronic, and typological perspectives. It challenges the assumption common in the typological, syntactic, and semantic literature, namely that so-called reciprocal constructions encode symmetric relations. Instead, they are analyzed as constructions encoding unspecified relations. In effect, it provides a new proposal for the truth-conditional semantics of these constructions. More broadly, this book introduces new ways of bringing together historical linguistics and formal semantics, demonstrating how, on the one hand, the inclusion of historical data concerning the sources of reciprocal constructions enriches their synchronic analysis; and how, on the other hand, an analysis of the syntax and the semantics of these constructions serves as a key for understanding their historical origins"--.

• The NP-strategy for Expressing Reciprocity
• Editorial page
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Table of contents
• Symbols and abbreviations
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
  • 1. Studying reciprocity
  • 2. The NP-strategy for expressing reciprocity: Typology, history, syntax and semantics
  • 3. The literature on reciprocal constructions
  • 4. A methodology for constructing a typology for reciprocal constructions
  • 5. The methodology in practice: The NP-strategy for expressing reciprocity
  • 6. The semantics of the NP-strategy for expressing reciprocity – preliminary observations
  • 7. Building theoretical bridges between historical linguistics and formal semantics
    • 7.1 Background
    • 7.2 Working hypothesis
  • 8. The scope and goals of the book
    • 8.1 The topics
    • 8.2 The languages
  • 9. The structure of the book and the intended audience
• 1. The types of constructions and their origin
  • 1.1 Introduction
  • 1.2 Types of NP-strategy constructions for expressing reciprocity in Semitic languages
  • 1.3 Two-unit constructions: Origin and semantics
    • 1.3.1 Two-unit constructions: A nominal construction
    • 1.3.2 Two-unit constructions: Pronominal constructions
      • 1.3.2.1 Constructions with a repetition of anaphoric pronouns
      • 1.3.2.2 Quantificational constructions
      • 1.3.2.3 Repetition of semantically bleached nouns
  • 1.4 A compositional explanation for the origin of the NP-strategy constructions
  • 1.5 Conclusions
• 2. The diachronic development from a two-unit to a one-unit construction
  • 2.1 Introduction
  • 2.2 Previous proposals for the emergence of the one-unit construction
  • 2.3 Syntactic differences between the one- and the two-unit construction
  • 2.4 The diachronic development within the NP-strategy
    • 2.4.1 Stage I
    • 2.4.2 Stage II
    • 2.4.3 Stage III
      • 2.4.3.1 The basic changes
      • 2.4.3.2 Univerbation
      • 2.4.3.3 Insertion of an agreement marker
      • 2.4.3.4 A change of grammatical case
  • 2.5 An interim summary and the significance of the observations
  • 2.6 From one- to two-unit constructions
  • 2.7 Conclusions and extrapolations
    • 2.7.1 Diachronic developments, syntax and semantics
    • 2.7.2 The nature of the change from two- to one-unit constructions
    • 2.7.3 Future typological study
• 3. Relics as a syntactic category: Modern Hebrew and Italian constructions as frozen formulae
  • 3.1 Introduction
  • 3.2 Modern Hebrew and Modern Italian constructions
  • 3.3 The syntax of the one-unit construction in Modern Hebrew (and Modern Italian)
  • 3.4 Interim summary
  • 3.5 In real time: A diachronic development in Modern Hebrew
  • 3.6 Conclusions
• 4. Heterogeneity: Languages with more than one NP-Strategy construction
  • 4.1 Introduction
  • 4.2 Various approaches to account for heterogeneity
  • 4.3 Part 1: The range of NP-strategy constructions in Early and Late Hebrew
    • 4.3.1 The relation between Early and Late Hebrew
    • 4.3.2 NP-strategy in Biblical Hebrew
    • 4.3.3 NP-strategy in Mishnaic Hebrew
      • 4.3.3.1 The constructions
      • 4.3.3.2 The origin of the Mishnaic construction
    • 4.3.4 The functions of the Biblical and Mishnaic constructions
    • 4.3.5 Another type of heterogeneity in Mishnaic Hebrew
  • 4.4 Part 2: Heterogeneity in Modern Hebrew
    • 4.4.1 Introduction
    • 4.4.2 The origin of the Modern Hebrew constructions
    • 4.4.3 The availability of the two-unit construction in Modern Hebrew
    • 4.4.4 A mixed-gender antecedent
    • 4.4.5 Semantic agreement with plural subjects
  • 4.5 Summary and concluding remarks
• 5. Changing meaning of the NP-strategy constructions
  • 5.1 Introduction
  • 5.2 One-unit anaphors and adverbs
    • 5.2.1 The adverbial strategy for expressing reciprocity
    • 5.2.2 Defining the adverbial strategy for expressing reciprocity
  • 5.3 The Akkadian expression ‘ah̬āmiš’
    • 5.3.1 ‘ah̬āmiš’ as an anaphor
    • 5.3.2 A putative shift: ‘One-unit anaphor’ > ‘adverb’
  • 5.4 Strategies for encoding reciprocity versus collective, sociative and comitative expressions
    • 5.4.1 Collective, sociative and comitative expressions
    • 5.4.2 Shifts in meaning between the conceptual categories of reciprocity and sociativity
  • 5.5 The origin of the Akkadian one-unit anaphor ‘ah̬āmiš’
  • 5.6 Summary and discussion of formal analyses of changes in meaning
  • 5.7 Appendix: An observation found in an ancient text on the grammatical relationship between the reciprocal and the sociative domains
• 6. A comparative linguistics study of NP-strategy constructions
  • 6.1 Introduction
  • 6.2 A brief history of Aramaic
  • 6.3 NP-strategy constructions in the history of Aramaic
  • 6.4 Linking Eastern Neo-Aramaic NP-strategy constructions with their Late Aramaic forebears
    • 6.4.1 Two types of constructions preserved from late Aramaic
    • 6.4.2 Derivatives of the Late-Aramaic one-unit constructions/anaphors
    • 6.4.3 NENA forms deriving from unattested morphemes
    • 6.4.4 The emergence of a new one-unit anaphor
  • 6.5 Concluding notes
• 7. The basic meaning of the NP-strategy for expressing reciprocity
  • 7.1 Introduction
  • 7.2 Structure and meaning
  • 7.3 Previous scholarship
  • 7.4 The Strongest Meaning Hypothesis
  • 7.5 The Modal Hypothesis
  • 7.6 Non-reciprocal readings of NP-strategy constructions for expressing reciprocity
  • 7.7 Unspecified constructions
    • 7.7.1 A weak interpretation as the basic meaning
    • 7.7.2 NP-strategy constructions under negation
    • 7.7.3 Support from diachronic evidence
  • 7.8 The indifference implicature
  • 7.9 An additional type of implied meaning
  • 7.10 Summary
• 8. Specifying the meaning of the NP-strategy through context
  • 8.1 Introduction
  • 8.2 The role of context in interpretation
  • 8.3 Hypothesis: Consistency with relevant descriptions of events in causal relations (CRDECR)
    • 8.3.1 Identifying the causal relations for a given context
    • 8.3.2 Inducing alternatives
    • 8.3.3 Broader issues germane to the current analysis
  • 8.4 The NP-strategy with focus-sensitive particles
  • 8.5 The indifference implicature within CRDECR
  • 8.6 Two clarifications
    • 8.6.1 Sentences out of context
    • 8.6.2 Contextual contradictions
  • 8.7 Summary
• References
• Language index
• Subject index