The Grammaticalization of Similar Lexical Items to Different Constructions: The Case of אמר and הגיד

Abstract

Despite their semantic similarity, the verbs and 'to say' differ in their pattern of use in modern spoken Hebrew; while the verb is common in the past and present tense, the verb is common in the future tense and the infinitive. This complementary distribution is not found in Biblical and Mishnaic Hebrew. Therefore, this article investigates whether these lexically similar verbs not only changed in their inflection frequency, but also developed different discourse functions in their grammaticalization processes. The motivation for the study stems from grammaticalization theory's claim that frequency is one of the factors involved in grammaticalization. By examining the evolution of forms with the verbs and to discourse markers in modern spoken Hebrew, it is shown that forms with the verb in the present tense grammaticalized to backward-pointing constructions, that is they refer to past segments in the discourse while forms with the verb in the future tense grammaticalized to forward-pointing constructions, that is, they refer to subsequent segments. Thus, this study provides support to grammaticalization theory's claim that traces of the lexical meaning of a form undergoing grammaticalization may be reflected in its grammatical function. The research of the grammaticalization of two similar lexical verbs to different constructions allows us to extend this claim to patterns of use such as type of inflection.