Scott Schwenter, Would you just die already? Priming and Obsolescence in Grammar

Arts and Humanities Inaugural Lecture
Wed, December 2, 2015
5:00 pm - 6:30 pm
Faculty Club Grand Lounge

Time: 5 p.m.
Event Host: Arts and Humanities
Short Description: Why won’t some grammatical elements in a language just die out?


Scott Schwenter
Why won’t some grammatical elements in a language just die out? In this talk, Scott Schwenter provides evidence to show that persistence in discourse, the priming of a grammatical item G by some prior mention of G or one of its variants in discourse, plays a crucial role in keeping obsolescing grammatical items from dying out completely. Examples will be drawn from Spanish, Portuguese and English. RSVP.

Reception will accompany each lecture. Free and open to the public.

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