On Grammaticalization of Complex Prepositions from Nominal Sources: With Reference to in addition to and in need of

Abstract

This paper explores the semantic and functional evolutions of the English complex prepositions in addition to and in need of from a grammaticalization perspective. The two complex prepositions exhibit peculiar aspects in the evolutional process, whereby the prepositions are both derived from nominal sources, i.e. addition and need, and retain the vestige of their source meanings. In particular, they develop into the near-antonymous grammatical pairs referring to ‘additive’ and ‘caritive’ concepts through the grammaticalization processes. The historical evolution and semantic extension patterns are illustrated based on data provided from the synchronic and diachronic sources. Some select aspects relevant to the developmental paths of the two forms are also discussed with respect to the theoretical issues, such as the source determination hypothesis, desemanticization, decategorialization, and analogy. Distributional characteristics of the forms and their sources are analyzed to identify the role of human cognition as a contributor to enable language changes.