Modelling incipient probabilistic grammar change in real time: the grammaticalisation of possessive pronouns in European Spanish locative adverbial constructions

Matti Marttinen Larsson

doi:10.1515/cllt-2021-0030

Abstract

AbstractThe present paper provides a methodological case study on how underlying incipient grammar change might be discerned even when frequencies of the incoming variant are apparently marginal and stable. Analysing the spread of tonic possessive pronouns in complements of locative adverbial constructions in European Spanish from a probabilistic perspective, more than 11,000 locative constructions from 1900 to 2004 were compiled, and probabilistic grammar change was operationalised as an interactive function between language-internal predictors and real time. The results reveal that numerous intralinguistic factors have been and are active in constraining the variation, with the innovation spreading significantly in spite of apparent stability in frequency. Crucially, the findings demonstrate that, even in a relatively standardised written language where the innovation has a considerably low frequency, the innovation grammaticalises along the same pathway as in colloquial vernaculars where the incoming variant is employed much more frequently.

Highlights

The present paper adopts a probabilistic view on diachronic grammar change (Bresnan 2007; Szmrecsanyi 2016), and showcases how an incipient instance of morphosyntactic variation is undergoing a change in its linguistic conditioningThis work is Marttinen Larsson during a 100-year timespan in spite of seemingly stable and marginal frequencies of the grammaticalising item.1 The phenomenon under study is the grammaticalisation of tonic possessive pronouns in locative adverbial phrases
The present paper provides a methodological case study on how underlying incipient grammar change might be discerned even when frequencies of the incoming variant are apparently marginal and stable
An increase in the frequency of an incoming variant is interpreted as a tell-tale sign of grammaticalisation (Hopper and Traugott 2003; Krug 2000; Mair 2004)

Summary

Introduction

The present paper adopts a probabilistic view on diachronic grammar change (Bresnan 2007; Szmrecsanyi 2016), and showcases how an incipient instance of morphosyntactic variation is undergoing a change in its linguistic conditioningThis work is Marttinen Larsson during a 100-year timespan in spite of seemingly stable and marginal frequencies of the grammaticalising item. The phenomenon under study is the grammaticalisation of tonic (i.e. postpositive) possessive pronouns in locative adverbial phrases. The phenomenon under study is the grammaticalisation of tonic (i.e. postpositive) possessive pronouns in locative adverbial phrases. In these adverbial constructions, traditional prepositional person-referential complements (e.g. delante de nosotros ‘in front of us’) alter with innovative tonic possessive complements (e.g. delante nuestro literally *‘in our front’), the latter form not being normatively acceptable. The paper illustrates the benefits of focussing on probabilistic approaches to the examination of incipient language change. Using this approach, what takes centre stage here are the probabilistic conditions underlying variant choice, that is, the reasons for which speakers choose a determined variant in discourse, rather than frequency competition between variants

Results

Discussion

Conclusion