Intertwined grammaticalization, degrammaticalization, and pragmaticalization: The case of ppwun ‘share’ in Korean

Abstract

This paper investigates the developmental paths and synchronic functions of one of the Korean defective nouns, i.e., ppwun ‘the only thing’, which originated from a full noun pwun ‘share’. Since the earliest data already show a number of grammaticalized functions, this paper attempts to reconstruct the developmental paths based on the semantic and morphosyntactic clues, making use of the synchrony-for-diachrony approach of grammaticalization. The noun pwun, through coalescence with the adjacent genitive marker -s, grammaticalized into a postpositional particle of focus -spwun ‘only’. When the etymologically bi-morphemic -s.pwun was reanalyzed as mono-morphemic, the dependent particle became reanalyzed again, presumably via analogy of nominal compounding, as a full-fledged, independent noun denoting ‘the only thing’, an instance of degrammaticalization by virtue of an increase of morpho-syntactic independence. Further, some such forms were pragmaticalized by acquiring discourse marker functions, i.e., the speaker’s negative stance toward the state of affairs alerting the addressee that something more serious is about to follow. A series of morphosyntactic and semantic-pragmatic changes shows how the linguistic forms have continuously been subject to morphosyntactic reanalysis and semantic reinterpretation resulting in multiply intertwined scenarios of grammaticalization, degrammaticalization, and pragmaticalization, often with their collocating forms.