Change is an inherent feature of all aspects of language, and syntax is no exception. While the synchronic study of syntax allows us to make discoveries about the nature of syntactic structure, the study of historical syntax offers even greater possibilities. Over recent decades, the study of historical syntax has proven to be a powerful scientific tool of enquiry with which to challenge and reassess hypotheses and ideas about the nature of syntactic structure which go beyond the observed limits of the study of the synchronic syntax of individual languages or language families. In this timely Handbook, the editors bring together the best of recent international scholarship on historical syntax. Each chapter is focused on a theme rather than an individual language, allowing readers to discover how systematic descriptions of historical data can profitably inform and challenge highly diverse sets of theoretical assumptions.

Adam Ledgeway is Professor of Italian and Romance Linguistics and Chair of the Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages at the University of Cambridge. His research interests are in the comparative history and morphosyntax of the Romance languages, Italian dialectology, syntactic theory and linguistic change. His recent books include From Latin to Romance: Morphosyntactic Typology and Change (2012) and Diachrony and Dialects: Grammatical Change in the Dialects of Italy (co-edited with P. Benincà and N. Vincent, 2014). Ian Roberts is Professor of Linguistics at the University of Cambridge. His research interests are in comparative syntax, set against the background assumptions of Universal Grammar argued for by Noam Chomsky. He currently holds a European Research Council Advanced Grant for a project to investigate a hypothesis as to the way in which grammatical options made available by Universal Grammar are organised. His recent publications include Parametric Variation (co-edited with T. Biberauer, A. Holmberg and M. Sheehan, Cambridge, 2009) and Syntactic Variation: The Dialects of Italy (co-edited with R. D'Alessandro and A. Ledgeway, Cambridge, 2010).