Degree Of Grammaticalization Research Articles

The grammaticalization of epistemicity in Ibero-Romance

Abstract Typologically-unexpected overt expletives can be found in a restricted number of non-standard Ibero-Romance null-subject varieties. Historical data suggest that these overt expletives, which in today’s varieties show both discourse-oriented and expletive characteristics, have their origin in 15th century impersonal epistemic constructions. This article argues that it is the expletives’ epistemic origin which gives rise to, and thus explains, their present-day heterogeneous properties, in particular their function as a marker of epistemicity in a number of varieties. Despite undergoing the same mechanisms of change, the variation in modern Ibero-Romance is understood to be a consequence of the different stages and degrees of grammaticalization reached in each variety.

Lexical auxiliaries in Spanish: How and why?

AbstractDeparting from a proposal by Keizer on how to bridge the gap between the grammar and the lexicon in Functional Discourse Grammar (FDG), this article deals with three aspectual verbal periphrases in Spanish, which are, in the order of their degrees of grammaticalization, (i) weakly grammaticalized resultative

Grammaticalization and prosody: The case of English sort/kind/type of constructions

This article studies the relationship between prosody and desemanticization in grammaticalization processes by means of a well-described phenomenon, the grammaticalization of ‘type’ nouns ( type , kind , sort ) in present-day English. To this end, 1,155 tokens of the three nouns, retrieved from the ICE-GB corpus, were semantically classified and prosodically analyzed. Our main result is that different synchronically coexisting prosodic patterns correspond to different degrees of grammaticalization. This result provides evidence that desemanticization and erosion proceed hand in hand. Their parallel development is attributed to the demands of iconicity rather than to frequency effects.

Modal particles in different communicative types

The distribution and frequency of individual heterosemes of a hyperlemma in basic communicative types, which are distinguished according to their primary expression of dialogicity (i.e. their factual communicative immediacy/distance), is shown to be dependent on the interplay of i) the heteroseme’s basic word class function, ii) its degree of grammaticalization, and iii) the presence of secondary (embedded or simulated) communicative situations (i.e. conceptual immediacy/distance) in the linguistic material. The items investigated aredenn‘then’,ruhig‘quiet’, ‘silent’, ‘peaceful’ andvielleicht‘maybe’ in German, which as hyperlemmas incorporate a number of distinct heterosemes (denn, for example, is used as conjunction, comparative particle, modal particle etc.). The focus of this corpus-based investigation is on the modal particle functions of the three hyperlemmas. The corpora used are distinguished according to primary degree of communicative immediacy/distance.

The Grammaticalization of the Spanish Complement-taking Verb without a Complementizer

This study examines authentic data samples taken from the Corpus de Referencia del Espanol Actual (CREA) in order to uncover any semantic trends that can be commonly observed in verbs taking a sentential complement without the complementizer que in Spanish. In doing so, special attention is given to the grammaticalization process that can account for epistemic fragments in which the semantic meaning of the verb becomes attenuated and where the main verb alone without a complementizer functions like an adverbial phrase. Four semantic groups of verbs with a zero complementizer are analyzed: (i) Verbs of cognition/mental act (e.g., creer ‘think’); (ii) verbs of communication (e.g., decir ‘say’); (iii) verbs of volition and desire (e.g., esperar ‘hope’); and iv) verbs of emotion (e.g., temer ‘fear’). These verb groups allowing a zero complementizer show differences with respect to (i) the subjunctive and indicative use in the embedded clause, (ii) the formal Vs. informal registers and (iii) the use of the complement-taking verbs as a fragment/parenthetical or an epistemic marker (in order to capture the degree of grammaticalization). This study proposes that not all the verbs that allow for the omission of the complementizer undergo the same degree of grammaticalization, but the semantics of the main verb interacting with all those factors play a role in determining the likelihood of the omission and the possibility that the main verb can actually be used as a floated parenthetical with a more subjective meaning that involves a more active process of grammaticalization. It is also shown that the degree of grammaticalization differs from verb to verb, as well as from verb class to verb class.

Verbal allocutivity in a crosslinguistic perspective

AbstractAllocutivity is a term coined to describe a phenomenon in Basque whereby, in certain pragmatic (and syntactic) circumstances, an addressee who is not an argument of the verb is systematically encoded in all declarative main clause conjugated verb forms. Although the term has been exclusively applied to Basque, similar phenomena are found in other languages as well. Indeed, despite certain differences in the degree of grammaticalization and usage, allocutive verb forms are attested in at least Pumé (isolate; Venezuela), Nambikwara (isolate; Brazil), Mandan (Siouan; North America), and Beja (Cushitic; Northeast Africa). The aim of this article is to propose a typology of verbal allocutivity in a crosslinguistic perspective, taking into consideration the locus of encoding, the manner in which it is encoded, the information concerning the addressee which is encoded, and the syntactic environments in which it can appear.

Grammaticalization in Korean and Japanese: A Contrastive Study of the Degrees of Grammaticalization

Grammaticalization in Korean and Japanese: A Contrastive Study of the Degrees of Grammaticalization

Relevanzgesteuerter Umbau der Substantivflexion im Deutschen

AbstractAccording to Bybee (1985, 1994), the relevance of one linguistic sign to another determines its formal expression as either lexical, morphological or syntactic. Highly relevant categories are predicted to be situated closer to the lexical root, i. e. by inflectional or derivational expression, whereas less relevant categories are more likely to be expressed periphrastically or syntactically. Nübling/Dammel (2004) show that relevance plays an important role in the diachronic reorganization of verbal inflection in German. We propose that this also applies to the diachronic development of the nominal categories in German, which is characterized by two major principles: levelling of caseforms versus maintenance and (even) strengthening of the more relevant number category. However, relevance is not the only principle shaping the diachronic reorganization of nominal inflection. We argue that a low degree of grammaticalization may counteract relevance as it usually correlates with low syntagmatic cohesion and high semantic specificity. Furthermore, we show that typological properties may interfere with the relevance criterion: The periphrastic expression of the relevant category of definiteness within the DP satisfies the overall tendency of German to express grammatical categories discontinuously through framing constructions (›Klammerprinzip‹). Another exception is the ›weak masculine declension‹ which contains mainly nouns denoting highly animate referents. We propose that animacy may alter the relevance hierarchy in the sense that demarcation of thematic roles (agent vs. others) through case marking is more important for highly animate referents than number marking.

Local pronouns in ditransitive scenarios: Corpus perspectives from English and Polish

Abstract While there is no doubt that the Rs (recipients) of ditransitive clauses are much more likely to be rendered by LPs (local persons) than Ts (themes), as reflected in the Person Role Constraint (see e.g., Perlmutter 1971; Bonet 1991, 1995; Haspelmath 2004), this paper sets out to determine whether the preference for LP Rs holds only relative to Ts or is in fact an absolute preference, i.e., a general property of Rs in ditransitive clauses. The investigation is based on a consideration of corpus data from two languages, English and Polish, both of which have a rich array of ditransitive predicates and together cover a good range of ditransitive constructions differing in degrees of grammaticalization. The investigation reveals that distribution of LPs is strongly affected by the degree of grammaticalization of a ditransitive construction and the encoding of the person forms, the levels of LP Rs and the frequency effects of the Person Role Constraint being strongest in double object constructions (DOC), less strong in the dative-accusative construction (DAC) and weakest in the prepositional construction (Prep-Cs), as shown in the cline: DOC > DAC > Prep-C. Significant differences are also noted in the distribution of LPs between different classes of ditransitive predicates, the highest level of LP Rs being with communicated message predicates and the lowest with ballistic and accompanying motion predicates.

Possessives and grammaticalization in Romance

As is well known, the possessive paradigms of French, Italian, Spanish and Romanian contain three types of possessive: adjectives, determiners and pronouns. Comparing with the Latin system, from which all Romance possessive systems derive, two tendencies prevail: possessive pronouns tend to be eliminated, and possessive adjectives change into determiners or become defictive adjectives with a restricted distribution. However, the possessive system of each of these four languages appears to be different. The aim of the article is to examine the extent to which these differences are the result of different degrees of grammaticalization. We show that the possessive system in French is in the lead in terms of grammaticalization in that neither of its two paradigms any longer displays adjectival properties. The least grammaticalized system is the Italian, while Spanish and Romanian occupy intermediate positions: Spanish combines the French system of clitic forms with the Italian system of strong forms. As for Romanian, the dependence of the possessive form on the definite article or its substitute AL shows that it is more grammaticalized than the Italian possessive system.

Grammaticalization and subjectification in the semantic domain of possibility in Kirundi (Bantu, JD62)

This article is a first systematic study of the expression of possibility in Kirundi, more specifically of its verbal markers. Possibility is traditionally seen as one of the core components of the semantic domain of modality. The onomasiological approach of this modal sub-domain has resulted in the identification of four verbal potential markers, i. e., the auxiliaries -bâsh- and -shóbor-, the semi-auxiliary -shóbok-, and the TAM affix -oo-. These four markers of possibility manifest different degrees of grammaticalization along the full verb > auxiliary > affix cline. Grammaticalization in the structural domain seems to be correlated with semantic change, both within and beyond the semantic domain of possibility. The related verbs -shóbor- and -shóbok-, which have no or little remaining lexical uses, cover the entire semantic domain of possibility in contrast to -bâsh- which has still clearly distinct lexical uses (‘ to be active, to be healthy’) and only conveys participant‑inherent possibility. The inflectional affix -oo-, covering the entire domain of possibility and having developed other modal and non-modal meanings, manifests the most advanced semantic generalization. Moreover, -oo- underwent the strongest subjectification within the semantic domain of possibility and even developed different intersubjective uses. Hence, the most grammaticalized marker of possibility in Kirundi not only underwent the strongest semantic generalization, but its meaning is also the most (inter) subjectified.

Degrees of grammaticalization in three Romance languages: A comparative analysis of existential constructions

Grammaticalization is generally assumed to be a gradual process and languages are thought to be grammaticalized to different degrees. For Romance languages, it has often been claimed that French is far more grammaticalized than Spanish, and that Italian occupies an intermediate position between these two. The aim of this study is to investigate to what extent this claim applies to existential constructions. In present-day French, Italian and Spanish, the most frequent existentials are il y a, c’e and hay respectively, all three being highly grammaticalized expressions. My analysis of these constructions will be based on the six parameters of grammaticalization as defined by Lehmann (1985, 1995), looking at instances drawn from a large newspaper corpus. The discussion will suggest that, as expected, French existential constructions display several signs of a highly advanced grammaticalization process which their Spanish and Italian counterparts lack. Moreover, it will be shown that the existential construction is least grammaticalized in Italian.

Les localisateurs dans les constructions existentielles : Approche comparée en espagnol, en français et en italien

Les localisateurs dans les constructions existentielles : Approche comparée en espagnol, en français et en italien

Cause and subjectivity, a comparative study of French and Italian

In this paper, we propose a contrastive corpus study of French car and parce que and Italian ché and perché, meaning “because”. Our goal is to assess the importance of subjectivity in grammaticalization in general, and in the renewal of causal conjunctions in particular. The evolution of these two pairs of conjunctions is quite similar: on the one hand, the most grammaticalized items of each pair, car and ché, are also the most intersubjective; they tend not to change meaning and to fall into disuse. On the other, the less grammaticalized items, parce que and perché, are also the less intersubjective, but gradually change meaning, possibly acquiring (more) intersubjective uses, and seem to have become the default causal conjunctions in Modern French and Italian — more clearly so in the spoken than in the formal, written varieties. There thus seems to be a link between the degree of grammaticalization and that of (inter)subjectification.

Die Übersetzung von Modalpartikeln als Indiz ihres Grammatikalisierungsgrades: die französischen Pendants von denn und eigentlich

In this paper, we consider the way modal particles are translated as an indication of their degree of grammaticalization. More in particular, the exemplar case studied here is the French translation of the German particles denn and eigentlich. Starting from a literary translation corpus, we will list five tendencies in the distribution of the translation equivalents which may indicate that denn has gone further already on the pathway of grammaticalization than has eigentlich. Thereby, we will focus on the meaning aspects of the grammaticalization process (persistence, bleaching, new meaning extension).

The auxiliary + infinitive construction in Hungarian

This paper gives a descriptive overview of the prototypical Hungarian auxiliary+ infinitive construction, discussed in the framework of functional cognitive grammar worked out by Ronald Langacker and in the grammaticalization theory for auxiliaries by Bernd Heine. The degree of grammaticalization seems to have a greater role in the construction than suggested in the previous literature, while Langacker's theory (fit for English) needs some modification. In the construction discussed here, the auxiliary profiles a process, and (future) tense or modal- ity. The infinitive accounts for most of the semantic content of the overall event structure. Both component structures contribute equally to the profile of the construction (the compos- ite structure), in a complementary way, in contrast with a prototypical composite structure. I assume that the Hungarian auxiliary serves the function of imposing temporality on a non- temporal infinitive, and also that of the grounding predication, which marks a departure from Langacker's English model. The Hungarian grounding predication (the auxiliary) and its head (the infinitive) do not belong to the same grammatical class, only the auxiliary+infinitive com- posite structure construes a process temporally. Also, degrees of subjectification contribute to types of construal, yielding a dimension of variation that cannot be derived from the deon- tic/epistemic distinction. Just like the semantic functions of the auxiliaries, subjectification and grounding show gradual characteristics.

Les conjonctions concessives à valeur réelle

The aim of this study is to compare the function and use of French and Swedish concessive conjunctions (bien que / quoique / encore que vs. trots att / fast / fastän). The analysis is based on a translation corpus, comprising French and Swedish fiction and non-fiction texts, and their translations into Swedish and French, respectively. It is argued that the semantic variation observed in the data is the result of a general diachronic semantic change including the following steps: nonsubjective > subjective > intersubjective. This reconstructive approach makes it possible to suggest a probable evolutionary path of the French and Swedish conjunctions and to determine their degree of grammaticalisation. The study also investigates differences in the use of the concessive conjunctions in fiction and non-fiction texts.

L'emploi « préfixal » des prépositions entre et tussen : analyse morphologique, sémantique et comparative

The central aim of this paper is to study the interaction between the grammaticalization process by which prepositions may develop into prefixes, on the one hand, and French and Dutch word structure, on the other hand. More particularly, it will be investigated whether the degree of grammaticalization of a bound preposition is influenced by the category it introduces (verb, noun, adjective, adverb) and whether this influence is the same in Frenchand Dutch. These theoretical issues are applied to a specific case study : the French preposition entre ‘between’ and its Dutch counter part tussen used as bound morphemes. Inthe first part, we show that the prepositions entre and tussen share a wide range of uses. In the second part, an extensive morphological, semantic and comparative analysis is applied tothe bound uses of both prepositions. The results of this analysis are discussed in part 3.

Oud-leerling versus ancien élève: A Comparative Study of Adjectives Grammaticalizing into Prefixes in Dutch and French

This article analyzes the grammaticalization of adjectives into prefixes in Dutch and French. In the first part, the notion of ‘affixoids’, hybrid elements that combine properties of free lexemes and bound morphemes, will be defined and illustrated. It will be claimed that affixoids can be seen as a result of a grammaticalization process for which we will advance phonological, morphological, semantic and distributional parameters applying to the evolution of adjectives into prefixes. The second part will be devoted to a specific case study in which these grammaticalization parameters will be applied to the Dutch adjectives oud ‘old’ and nieuw ‘new’ and their French counterparts ancien ‘old’ and nouveau ‘new’ when used in word-formation. More particularly, we will examine whether these adjectives may develop prefix-like properties when embedded in a compound structure and determine their degree of grammaticalization.

Locative terms and spatial frames of reference in Wan

The paper is a study of spatial expressions in Wan (Mande, Cote d'Ivoire). The system of locative postpositions of Wan comprises two semantic classes which have distinct historical sources: terms referring to intrinsic parts of inanimate objects, and body part terms. I discuss differences in the use and interpretation of locative terms from these two classes. Some of these differences can be explained by different degrees of grammaticalization, in that body part terms are to a lesser extent specialized for expression of abstract spatial relations than object part terms. I illustrate differences in interpretation between body part postpositions and object part postpositions by a pair of nearly synonymous postpositions tā 'on top of' and pēŋ 'at the head of', which rely in their interpretation on different frames of reference (fixed armatures vs. object-centered, Levinson 2003: 77-79). My analysis is based on the notion of internal asymmetry of the reference object, which allows the body part postpositions to pick out a spatial region in a way that is independent of the object's actual orientation. This example illustrates one way in which the internal asymmetry of the reference object constrains the interpretation of spatial adpositions.