Expletives and Dummies

Abstract

Under the term ‘expletive,’ phenomena with different properties and explanations traditionally have been grouped together. Three main sources of expletives have been identified here: (1) processes of desemanticization typical of grammaticalization paths; (2) factors more specifically connected to planning strategies characteristic of spoken discourse; and (3) metrical and prosodic factors. In some phenomena it is possible to recognize an interplay of these factors. Among the phenomena related to source (1), the loss of full meaning of one of the verbs of a verbal periphrasis is especially conspicuous. Phenomena like double negation and so-called ‘expletive subject pronouns’ originate in source (2), although they are often also involved in grammaticalization processes leading to them being fixed as normal structures in the linguistic system. Stem reduplication and other kinds of extensions of morphological units are related to metrical and prosodic factors. It is claimed that these disparate phenomena also have various properties with respect to the time factor (i.e., some are mainly diachronic, others synchronic, still others panchronic). They also pose interesting theoretical problems for the form–function relationship. A notion that seems useful at the descriptive level and seems to have potential implications for the theory is hypercharacterization (i.e., multiple determination) of form and function. Two conclusions may be suggested. The first is that it is appropriate to distinguish between semantic function and functioning in discourse. Units exist that do not have semantic function but do have a functioning power in the utterance; other units may have both functioning power and semantic function. These may be properly defined as hypercharacterized structures. The second conclusion is that, contrary to principles or conditions long established in theories, the relationship between function and form on the syntagmatic level must be conceived as plurivocal (more than one form can correspond to each function).