@article{jbp:/content/journals/10.1075/dia.29.2.05mad, author = "Madariaga, Nerea", title = "Formal mismatches and functional advantage in syntactic change: The case of Old and Middle Russian non-verbal predicates", journal= "Diachronica", year = "2012", volume = "29", number = "2", pages = "231-257", doi = "https://doi.org/10.1075/dia.29.2.05mad", url = "https://www.jbe-platform.com/content/journals/10.1075/dia.29.2.05mad", publisher = "John Benjamins", issn = "0176-4225", type = "Journal Article", keywords = "theta-role", keywords = "Middle Russian", keywords = "formal mismatch", keywords = "functional advantage", keywords = "syntactic change", keywords = "parsability", keywords = "Old Russian", keywords = "case feature", abstract = "This paper relies on the idea that syntactic change stems from linguistic factors that are different in nature and, consequently, trigger different results. Specifically, I distinguish the causes, processes and results related to two different kinds of syntactic change, a ‘formal’ type of change vs. a ‘functional’ one. The hypotheses pursued here are the following: (i) Mismatches between the formal features a learner has acquired and certain data she receives during the language acquisition period lead to a syntactic change type, which restructures completely the syntactic derivation involved; (ii) The advantage of parsing one variant over parsing another triggers a different kind of change, namely one that affects specific instances or uses / registers of the crucial syntactic structure. To illustrate this, I analyze the role of functional advantage and formal changes in the historical development of the case system of Russian non-verbal predication.", }