The Evolution of the Slavic Dual : A Biolinguistic Perspective

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.

The dual number in Slavic has always puzzled linguists. In some Slavic languages, such as Russian, there is no dual number; there are only two categories of number, singular and plural. However, some Slavic languages, such as Slovenian, have three distinct categories of number: singular (1); dual (2); and plural (3 or more). Considering that all Slavic languages have evolved from a common Proto Slavic language, it is puzzling that there is such a difference in the category of number. In The Evolution of the Slavic Dual: A Biolinguistic Perspective, Tatyana G. Slobodchikoff explains the evolution of the category of number in Slavic languages. With the aid of tools from biolinguistics, Slobodchikoff develops a new theory of morphosyntactic feature economy within the distributed morphology framework. This is the first study to use a biolinguistic approach to the evolution of Slavic languages. Using newly digitized corpora of Old East Slavic, Old Slovenian, and Old Sorbian manuscripts spanning from the eleventh century through the present time, this book presents a complete analysis of the evolution of dual number in Slavic languages.