Grammaticalization Pathway Research Articles

The origin of the causative prefix in Rgyalrong languages and its implication for proto-Sino-Tibetan reconstruction

AbstractIn this paper, the first detailed description of the two causative derivations in Japhug Rgyalrong is presented, based on a corpus of spontaneous speech. Two new pathways of grammaticalization are proposed. First, it is shown that the causative derives from a special type of denominal derivation. Second, a previously undocumented development from the causative to the abilitative derivation is described. Lastly, the implications of these grammaticalization hypotheses for the reconstruction of Sino-Tibetan morphology as a whole are evaluated.

The development of dative agreement in Berber: beyond nominal hierarchies

AbstractDiachronically, agreement commonly emerges from clitic doubling, which in turn derives from topic shift constructions (Givón 1976) – a grammaticalisation pathway termed the Agreement Cycle. For accusatives, at the intermediate stages of this development, doubling constitutes a form of Differential Object Marking, and passes towards agreement as the conditions for its use are relaxed to cover larger sections of the Definiteness and Animacy Scales. Berber, a subfamily of Afroasiatic spoken in North Africa, shows widespread dative doubling with substantial variation across languages in the conditioning factors, which in one case has developed into inflectional dative agreement. Examination of a corpus covering eighteen Berber varieties suggests that low Definiteness/Animacy datives are less likely to be doubled. However, since most datives are both definite and animate, these factors account for very little of the observed variation. Much more can be accounted for by an unexpected factor: the choice of verb. “Say” consistently shows much higher frequencies of doubling, usually nearly 100 per cent. This observation can be explained on the hypothesis that doubling derives from afterthoughts, not from topic dislocation.

A New Grammaticalisation Pathway: From Non-Finite Verb to Ergative Marker

Studies on the diachronic origin of ergative and agentive markers (Palancar 2002, Heine and Kuteva 2002) have focused on the development of ergative from other case markers, in particular spatial cases (ablative, locative, allocative, perlative) as well as genitive and instrumental. These diachronic pathways are indeed widespread. For instance, the ergative -s, -kjis in Tibetan is obviously related to the -s in other cases such as the ablative -las, the elative -nas and the comparative -bas (see Hill 2011 on the use of these cases in Old Tibetan). This is however far from being the only attested origin of ergative markers. In this paper, we present data from Tangut showing a grammaticalisation pathway from a converbial form of the verb ‘to do’ to the ergative. We shall first describe some syntactic properties of the ergative in Tangut, and then propose a path of grammaticalisation accounting for this development.

Vygotsky, Cognitive Development and Language

SummaryLev Vygotsky’s (1896–1934) views of the genesis of language and its relation to thought, illustrated here by his account of the origin of the pointing gesture, can be seen as anticipating current research in socially constituted cognition, pragmatics, developmental psychology and grammaticalization, in all of which the importance of contextual and pragmatic factors looms large. His conceptualization of the evolution of communication from action to semiosis has bearing on, and is illuminated by, recent developments in neurobiology, developmental psychology, primatology, and grammaticalization theory. Specifically, recently discovered mirror neuron systems may offer a neurophysiological platform for the evolution of language from gesture and imitation, for the transition from action to sign, from referential to relational meaning, an evolution in which the establishment of joint attention is pivotal. With his emphasis on the dynamic, socially constructed nature of signs, Vygotsky shares Humboldt’s view of language asenergeia, as a system in a perpetual state of emergence, a view consistent with Condillac’s ‘language of action’, in which spontaneous vocalizations and gestures give rise to sign functions. Research of the grammaticalization pathways associated with demonstratives and modal particles also offers new perspectives on the process and hypothesized unidirectionality of grammaticalization, including the plausible claim that demonstratives represent a second and separate source of candidates for grammaticalization. Integrating grammaticalization research with findings from relevant social and natural sciences holds out the prospect of underwriting significant advances in understanding the origin of language and the emergence of grammar.

As construções recíprocas nos textos portugueses arcaicos. Um subsistema gramatical em vias de surgimento

The main goal of this paper is to identify various methods of expressing reciprocity encountered in Old Portuguese texts (from 13th to 15th centuries) and to account for putative evolutionary mechanisms conducive to their emergence and their subsequent shape. Most of the grammaticalization pathways documented in human languages have been implemented in Old Portuguese, as well. Only syntactically built reciprocals will be taken into account; their lexical counterparts, where reciprocity is an inherent semantic property, will be evoked incidentally. Peculiar characteristics exhibited by ancient Portuguese reciprocal constructions comprise: a shaky selection of determiners distributed over the bipartite indefinite "um ao outro" and its varieties, a rather peripheral, though clearly distinct exponent "d’huũa parte e d’ooutra" designed to highlight a twofold (and not manifold) internal structure of states of affairs, a remarkable mobility of "se" and, finally, a blurred distinction between "entre eles" (preferably anaphoric) and "entre si" (used seemingly at random, with either indefinite and definite objects). Compared to other incipient Romance languages, a system built around this set of markers was rather scanty. It relied on numerous makeshift solutions, as typically do the languages whose particular grammatical areas are merely on the point of coming into existence.

On the Grammaticalization of the Kavalan SAY Verb zin

SAY verbs crosslinguistically have been widely reported to undergo certain grammaticalization processes and to be used as quotative markers, complementizers, evidential markers, and discourse markers. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the grammaticalization of the SAY verb zin in Kavalan, a highly endangered Austronesian language spoken on the eastern coast of Taiwan. It is shown that the Kavalan SAY verb zin has undergone the process of grammaticalization and come to be used as a semicomplementizer and stance marker. It is proposed that zin has undergone two pathways of grammaticalization and that there are two different forces underlying these two pathways. On the one hand, the mechanism of morphosyntactic reanalysis leads zin to be grammaticalized as a semicomplementizer. On the other hand, it is the forces of (inter)subjectification that lead zin to be open to being reinterpreted as a stance marker.

Grammaticalization and Stance-taking of the Sentential Ending keya in Korean

This article aims to address grammaticalization pathways and stance-taking of the sentential ending keya in Korean. Keya (ke+ya), the nonhonorific form of kesipnita, derived from kesiya through s-deletion and i (copular)-deletion. Its starting point of grammaticalization is kes. Kes involves reference to the pronominal (i.e., things), the nominalizer (i.e., events), and the sentential nominalizer (i.e., proposition) through the mechanism of generalization. Kes absorbs the sentence force of -ya (semantic absorption). Therefore, keya is used in declaratives, exclamatives, interrogatives, and imperatives with prosody involved. Keya is more affixalized, agglutinated and fused than kesiya based on the usage comparison of ke and kes. Its morpho-syntactic and functional developments affect its stance-taking. This paper displays evolutional track of stance-taking of keya involved with the sentence force. Finally stance-takings induced by sentence force are broken into three categories of stance: attitudinal, epistemic, and emotional based on Rhee (2011a). This study is theoretically in accordance with Givon (1979: 209): yesterday’s syntax is today’s morphology.

A comitative source for object markers in Sinitic languages: 跟kai 55 in Waxiang and 共kang 7 in Southern Min

This analysis sets out to specifically discuss the polyfunctionality of [kai55] in Waxiang (Sinitic), whose lexical source is the verb 'to follow'. Amongst its various uses, we find a preposition 'with, along', a marker of adjuncts and a NP conjunction, thus superficially resembling its Mandarin cognate gēn 'with'. Curiously, however, it has also evolved into a direct object marker in Waxiang, with a function similar to that of preposition bă < 'hold, take' as found in the S-bă-O-VP or so-called 'disposal' form in standard Mandarin. The pathways of grammaticalization for [kai55] in Waxiang are thus discussed in order to determine how it has developed this unusual grammatical function in one of the linguistic zones of China where verbs of giving or taking are, in fact, the main source for grammaticalized object markers in 'disposal' constructions. On the basis of 16th and 17th century Southern Min literature (Sinitic), a comparison is also made with analogous developments for comitative gòng 'with' to provide support for our hypothesis that the direct object marking use has evolved from the oblique function of a benefactive or dative, and is clearly separate from the crosslinguistically well-attested pathway that leads to its use as a conjunction. We would thus like to propose that these data contribute a new pattern to the stock of grammaticalization pathways, specifically, comitative > dative/benefactive > accusative (direct object marker).

Het gevaarlijke pad van pronomen tot suffix - Over grammaticalisatie en analogie

Most current views on grammaticalisation consider reanalysis to be the basic mechanism underlying grammaticalisation. A comparison of subject doubling data from West Germanic and Romance varieties shows that this view faces problems. The grammaticalisation of pronouns into clitics and agreement markers is less likely to proceed into the final stages in West Germanic than in Romance dialects. This difference can be related to the fact that some of the obvious analogical extensions for the use of clitics in Romance are not or to a lesser extent available in West Germanic. Hence, the grammaticalisation pathway of a certain pattern is crucially determined by the pattern’s potential for paradigmatic extensions rather than by its liability to reanalysis.

The semantic field of continuation: Periphrastic blijven and continuer à

The article presents an analysis of the periphrastic expression of continuative aspect by taking into account Dutch blijven + Vinf and French continuer à + Vinf. As prototypical marks of continuation, or the middle phase of an event, they will be argued to constitute the core of a formal field of equivalent expressions and of a semantic field intersecting with other meanings, including spatiality, stativity, iteration and counter-expectation. The lack of substantial research into continuative aspect motivates a semasiological approach making use of translation data which, although potentially controversial, will be shown to be a highly effective heuristic for formal and semantic equivalence in linguistic phenomena. A quantitative outset will be combined with qualitative analyses of synchronic data, resulting in an outline of potential pathways of grammaticalization and, potentially, subjectification.

From discourse to syntax and back: The lifecycle of Kuuk Thaayorre ergative morphology

The ergative inflection of Kuuk Thaayorre nouns is remarkably irregular. More than 15 distinct ergative forms are attested, none of which is phonologically predictable. This ergative inflection is also remarkable for its optional use. In spite of its primarily syntactic function, it may also be used to mark pragmatically ‘unexpected’ intransitive subjects, or be omitted where the referent of a transitive subject is easily retrieved from the discourse context or world knowledge. This article proposes that both the formal irregularity of the Kuuk Thaayorre ergative morpheme and its optionality have their origins in a language-wide historical process of phonological erosion. The suite of diachronic processes this erosion triggered a bidirectional grammaticalisation pathway, whereby grammatical (ergative) morphs were imbued with pragmatic functions even as originally pragmatic (focal) morphs were reanalysed as grammatical.

Another view of the Gooniyandi “counterfactual” and its implications to the Van linden–Verstraete typology

Van linden and Verstraete (2008) present a compelling typological investigation of counterfactuals in simple clauses, showing that they are usually marked by both a modal element and a marker of tense. They propose that polarity reversal in the counterfactual represents a Generalised Conversational Implicature derived via the Gricean maxim of quantity, applied to a modalised past tense clause; in some languages this has grammaticalised, they suggest, into a coded rather than implicated meaning. In this note I attempt to do two things. First, I point to what seems to me to be a weakness of this pragmatic proposal: it fails to recognise the variety of meanings that can be coded by modal categories of the types employed in counterfactuals. This raises doubts about the universality of the suggested grammaticalisation pathway. Second, I examine one of the languages in their sample, Gooniyandi, and argue that the mono-clausal counterfactual is not double-marked in the way Van linden and Verstraete (2008) presume. It is double-marked paradigmatically rather than syntagmatically. I conclude with an alternative explanation that links counterfactuals to negative constructions, and may provide another motivation for their double marking in some languages.

From possibility to prohibition: A rare grammaticalization pathway

It is generally assumed that the development of modality proceeds in a unidirectional manner from deontic to epistemic meaning. In this article, we present crosslinguistic data in contradiction of this hypothesis by showing that markers of possibility can, albeit rarely, develop to prohibitives by following a path of semantic change that includes warnings as intermediary links. In addition, this rare development is interesting in that it involves a polarity shift from an affirmative marker to a negative meaning.

Drift and the Grammaticalization Divide between Northern and Southern Wakashan

The considerable divergence in inflectional complexity between the northern and the southern branches of the Wakashan family calls out for an explanation. Both branches are equally rich with regard to derivational potential, but only in the northern branch have fine‐grained inflectional systems of clitics evolved for demarcating clausal constituents and expressing grammatical relations between them. These are built upon deictic/demonstrative elements common to both branches and reconstructible for the proto‐language, as is the system of personal pronouns. It is by no means clear a priori whether the northern branch has innovated here or the southern branch has lost material that was once a common inheritance. This paper is concerned with why and how this diverging situation may have come about, and draws upon considerations of grammaticalization pathways, internal “drift,” and likely areal influences to suggest that the southern branch—despite the relative paucity and fluidity of its inflectional distinct...

Areal Typology and Grammaticalization

Grammaticalization processes in East and mainland South East Asian languages show remarkable areal parallels within the domain of the verb and the noun. Since language contact increases processes of reanalysis it supports grammaticalization and its cross-linguistic similarity. Grammaticalization processes are governed by attractor positions (cf. 1.1.3.) and pathways of grammaticalization (cf. 1.1..4.). The former is a good parameter for making areal distinctions, the latter is of areal relevance only within the domain of the verb. Because of attractor positions, grammaticalization processes are not necessarily slow and gradual. The distribution of attractor positions relative to each other is governed by the principles of relevance and generality (Bybee 1985).

Irrealis and the Subjunctive

This paper suggest that in order to understand the cross-language distribution of the subjunctive mood one needs to understand the cross-grammar distribution of the irrealis modality, as well as have a general theory of modality, within which irrealis takes its rightful natural place. The subjunctive mood turns out to occupy two coherent sub regions within irrealis: (a) the subjunctive of lower certainty (within the epistemic sub-mode of irrealis), and (b) the subjunctive of weaker manipulation (within the deontic sub-mode of irrealis). A grammaticalized subjunctive may take the same form in both sub-modes (as in Romance), or two distinct forms (as in some Bantu languages). The paper also investigates the diachronic pathways of grammaticalization through which various subjunctive patterns arise, showing that analogical extension patterns exist in both directions — from deontic to epistemic and vice versa. The interaction between grammaticalization patterns and functional universals is also discussed.