Lexington Books The Evolution of the Slavic Dual: A Biolinguistic Perspective (Studies in Slavic, Baltic, and Eastern European Languages and Cultures)

Product Description Developing a new theory of morphosyntactic feature economy in a morphology framework, this book uses a biolinguistic approach to examine the evolution of Slavic languages to discover how some developed a separate dual number category while others have only singular and plural and to explain the evolution of the number category in Slavic languages. Review Evolution of the Slavic Dual: A Biolinguistic Perspective covers a wide range of cross-linguistic data from diachronic and synchronic perspectives in a very accessible format so that readers will have a thorough understanding of the spread and decline of the dual number in Slavic languages such as Old Church Slavonic, Old Russian, and Kashubian. The presentation of theoretical and empirical material includes a great number of charts, tables, figures, and other illustrations, which greatly contributes to the comprehensibility of the dense linguistic material. This book appeals to anybody interested in the evolution of Slavic morpho-syntax as well as to a wide audience of scholars and specialists in theoretical and applied linguistics worldwide. It is a must-have reference for those who want to further explore the theoretical aspects of the dual number in natural languages.--Leila Lomashvili, Shawnee State University There have already been multiple contributions to questions dealing with the category of dual in Slavic, and it is indeed difficult to say something new in this area of Slavic studies. However, using the principle of Morphosyntactic Feature Economy as the theoretical framework, Tatyana G. Slobodchikoff has succeeded in reaching insightful conclusions concerning the development of the Slavic dual. This monograph will prove indispensable for those who are interested in the evolution of the grammatical category of number in Slavic and beyond.--Motoki Nomachi, Hokkaido University About the Author Tatyana G. Slobodchikoff is lecturer of English at Troy University.