Abstract

The phenomenon under discussion is an example of a grammatical change that can be explained by refunctionalization, and as such, can be understood as the acquisition of a new meaning by an ‘endangered’ grammatical construction, which is reassigned to express another value. Refunctionalization involves the development of a new function (in this case a syntactic-semantic one). When an item loses its function, or is marginal within a system, it can be lost (as happens with the construction under study in Standard Spanish), it can be ‘saved’ as a marginal element (as in some areas of American Spanish varieties) or it can be reused for other purposes (as in the Central American Spanish varieties). The latter case presents new discursive values. Hence, this construction should be understood as an example of reusing grammatical functionally opaque material for new purposes.

Highlights

  • Naming and classifying grammatical phenomena is useful for acquiring a better understanding of them

  • Exaptation happens when a grammatical form G1 derives from a form without grammatical meaning G0

  • The main question is whether the history of the ‘un su amigo’ construction—as a process of grammatical change—can be explained by refunctionalization

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Summary

Introduction

Naming and classifying grammatical phenomena is useful for acquiring a better understanding of them. Adfunctionalization (or capitalization), on the other hand, is the addition of a new value to the already existent meaning/function of an element Both processes help us understand better how grammatical material is formed and maintained within languages and they help us ‘name’ the construction under discussion (‘un su amigo’).. Refunctionalization can take place when a grammatical form loses almost all its original semantic content and is newly employed as a semantically distinct form (‘reanalysis of function’ à la Heine 2003). It happens when the item in question does not have a function (i.e., ‘linguistic junk’), it. Construction in Central American Spanish can be explained as a case of refunctionalization

Application of the Term and Interest in the Construction
Some Remarks about the Construction
Partitive Value
Iterative Value
Emphatic Value
Discursive-Pragmatic Value
Findings
Final Considerations and Conclusions
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