Grammaticalization Cline Research Articles

Ideophones in Arusa Maasai: Syntax, morphology, and phonetics

Abstract The present article is dedicated to the syntax, morphology, and phonetics of ideophones in Arusa Maasai. After examining the compliance of 69 ideophonic lexemes with the typologically driven prototype of an ideophone, the authors conclude that Arusa ideophones may range from canonical to non-canonical even within a single language module. When syntax, morphology, and phonetics are considered jointly, holophrastic and asyntagmatic ideophones are more canonical than ideophones used as verbal modifiers and parts of complex predicates, which are, in turn, more canonical than predicative ideophones. The extent of canonicity is inversely correlated with the systematicity and integration of ideophones in sentence grammar and their diffusion into other lexical classes: predicative ideophones have been fully incorporated into the category of verbs; for ideophones employed as verbal modifiers, a comparable incorporation into the category of adverbs has not been completed; for all the other types, especially holophrastic and asyntagmatic, ideophones still maintain their categorical individuality. Overall, ideophones constitute an “old” category in Arusa, one that is well advanced on its grammaticalization cline.

The Grammaticalization of Catalan anar (‘to go’) + Infinitive for the Expression of Perfective Past: A Diachronic, Corpus-Based Perspective

This study constitutes an exploratory analysis of the grammaticalization cline of anar (‘to go’) + infinitive in Catalan to express perfective past (e.g., va arribar ‘s/he arrived’). Our research interest primarily lies in diachronically tracing the evolution of this grammatical change, which appears to be unprecedented in other Romance languages (e.g., Spanish, French), in which the construction has instead led to the expression of a near and/or intentional future. A gap in research is found in the fact that there have been few corpus-based, pragmatic approaches to the matter. We base our theoretical framework on the definition of grammaticalization by Hopper and Traugott (2003) and a number of related publications (Alturo 2017, Pérez-Saldanya & Hualde 2003). Critical items (N=346) were retrieved from the diachronic corpus CICA (11th-18th c.) and subsequently analyzed in the light of pragmatic factors, establishing a three-stage cline based on Segura (2012). Results show how informative bridging contexts are in shaping grammaticalization processes, as they highlight the challenges of tracing a grammaticalization process based on corpora of literary texts. A discussion follows on the identification of potential next steps that might be useful in complementing our own research.

Romanian de fapt - from an adjectival adjunct to an attention marker

This research traces back the development of the Romanian phrase de fapt (‘in fact, actually, indeed’), based on written and oral corpora. De fapt has been attested in Romanian since late 19th century; chronologically, it is the last of the three Romanian adverbial expressions (alongside în faptă and în fapt) that went through all the stages of the grammaticalization cline proposed by Elizabeth Traugott for this type of adverbs. However, we consider that this phrase actually goes even further by becoming, in press headlines, an attention marker (Fraser 2009: 297), thus joining the category of să vezi ce s-a întâmplat (‘you won’t believe what has happened’). Thus, in press titles such as Cu ce femeie a petrecut aseară Pepe, de fapt (‘Who is the woman Pepe actually spent the evening with’), de fapt loses its contrastive discourse marker rhetorical function of contrasting with a previous element and acquires a new function, i.e. of inviting the reader to read a story that (s)he would have otherwise overlooked. In this type of occurrences, de fapt acquires, for the first time, an intersubjective value.

Romance and Croatian in Contact: Non-Clitic Auxiliaries in Istro-Romanian

This paper focuses on Istro-Romanian and argues that the TAM auxiliaries of this variety are not morphophonological clitics. This analysis is supported by the existence of several empirical phenomena (auxiliary-licensed VP-ellipsis, scrambling, and interpolation), some not found in modern Romance, others very rare in modern Romance. This property of Istro-Romanian auxiliary verbs accounts, in conjunction with other features of this variety (e.g., the availability of C-oriented and I-oriented pronominal clitics), for the massive variation in the word order of pronominal clitics, auxiliaries, and the lexical verb found in the Istro-Romanian sentential core. An endangered Romance variety spoken in Istria and in the diaspora, historically related to (Daco-)Romanian, Istro-Romanian has been in contact with Croatian since the settlement of Istro-Romanians in the Istrian peninsula. As some of the Istro-Romanian features and phenomena are found both in Croatian and in old Romanian, it appears that contact with Croatian acts as a catalyst of structural convergence engendering the retention of an archaic property of Istro-Romanian auxiliaries: a lower position on the grammaticalization cline, closer to the full word status of their etyma.

Clitic doubling in Peninsular and Rioplatense Spanish: a comparative corpus investigation

The current study compares the distribution of clitic doubling (CD) in two varieties of Spanish: Peninsular Spanish and Rioplatense Spanish. Based on two corpora of colloquial speech we investigate under which conditions CD with pronominal and nominal objects[1] is possible and which factors favour the occurrence of CD in the variable contexts.Based on a variationist analysis with Rbrul, we show that personal prounouns are almost categorically doubled in both corpora. The presence of dative case marking is a sufficient condition for CD to be possible with pronominal and nominal objects. This is in principle independent of semantic factors like definiteness, specificity and animacy, which also favour CD. In Rioplatense, CD of dative noun phrases is advanced in comparison to Peninsular Spanish as it is almost categorical and independent of the semantic specification of the object, whereas specificity still plays a role for CD of dative nominal objects in Peninsular Spanish. CD of accusative objects occurs less frequently and is more restricted. Non-personal pronouns show that definiteness is a necessary and decisive feature for CD of accusatives, indefinite non-personal pronouns cannot be doubled. In Buenos Aires, doubling of direct nominal objects also presupposes their definiteness (and specificity). DOM favours CD to occur, but it is neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition for CD.Overall, our study confirms that the factors determining the distribution of CD can be ordered on an implicational (definiteness) scale and that CD has a wider distribution and is less restricted in Rioplatense Spanish in comparison to Peninsular Spanish. We conclude that this reflects that Rioplatense Spanish has reached a more advanced stage of CD on a grammaticalization cline than Peninsular Spanish[1] Throughout our paper, we use the terms pronominal and nominal objects in order to distinguish between pronouns and non-pronominal noun phrases in object position, although it is of course clear to us that pronouns are also nominal objects. We will also use the abbreviation DP (determiner phrase) to refer to non-pronominal noun phrases.

Grammatikalisering af danske præpositioner

Messerschmidt & al. (2018) made a distinction between grammatical and lexical prepositions based on the functional theory of grammatical status in Boye & Harder (2012), and demonstrated that this distinction is significant for the description of agrammatic speech. The functional theory predicts that grammatical items attract less attention than lexical ones. In this paper, we use a letter detection experiment to demonstrate that this also holds for Danish prepositions. Not all grammatical-lexical preposition pairs contrasted show a significant difference between letter detection rates, however. We argue that varying degrees of differences reflect different positions in a grammaticalization cline in which a grammatical descendent is gradually distilled out of a lexical source.

The grammaticalization of object pronouns: Why differential object indexing is an attractor state

AbstractWhile the grammaticalization of person agreement is a widely-cited and apparently uncontroversial topos of grammaticalization theory, the striking differences in the outcome of subject pronoun, and object pronoun grammaticalization, remain unexplained, and the relevant literature continues to assume a unified grammaticalization pathway. This paper argues that the grammaticalization of object pronouns is fundamentally different to that of subject pronouns. More specifically, although object pronouns may be rapid early grammaticalizers, often losing prosodic independence and cliticizing to a verbal head, they do not advance further to reach the stage of obligatory agreement markers typical of subject agreement. Typically, object markers remain at the stage of Differential Object Indexing, where their realization is conditioned by a bundle of semantic and pragmatic factors exhibiting close parallels to those operative in Differential Object Marking. Evidence from language typology, and from the diachrony of person markers across two millennia of Iranian languages, is adduced to back up these claims. Thus the widely-assumed grammaticalization cline for the grammaticalization of agreement needs to be reconsidered; for object agreement, there is evidently an attractor state, that of Differential Object Indexing, beyond which object agreement seldom proceeds. Finally, explanations grounded in discourse data are proposed, which also account for why obligatory object agreement in the category of person is so rare, while gender and number agreement for objects is far less constrained.

Grammaticalization across Romance languages and the pace of language change

AbstractGrammaticalization across Romance languages and the pace of language change. The position of Catalan.In several works on grammaticalization, one of the authors of this paper has established a grammaticalization cline which posits three major Romance languages: French at one extreme, Spanish at the other, and Italian in between (Lamiroy, 1999,2001,2003,2011,Lamiroy & De Mulder, 2011,De Mulder & Lamiroy, 2012,Van de Velde & Lamiroy, 2017). Our purpose is to place Catalan on this cline. To achieve our goal, we use data of Catalan related to several topics, viz. auxiliaries, past tense, existential sentences, mood and demonstratives. Catalan shows contradictory evidence: whereas the grammaticalization process in certain domains suggests that it parallels Spanish and Italian, in many others, it patterns with French. Thus the hypothesis for which we provide evidence here is the following cline : French > Catalan > Italian > Spanish.

New insights into an old form: A variationist analysis of the pleonastic possessive in Guatemalan Spanish

AbstractRomance languages differ as regards the adjectival or article-like status of prenominal possessives. While in Italian, Portuguese, Catalan, and Old Spanish, they pattern like adjectives and co-occur with articles, and in French and Modern Spanish, they compete with the latter for the same structural position. The different distribution of possessives is claimed to reflect distinct stages on a grammaticalization cline (Alexiadou, 2004). This paper focuses on a variety of Central American Spanish where the Old Spanish co-occurrence of an (indefinite) article and a possessive in the prenominal domain has been maintained (as inuna mi amiga‘a my friend’). Based on a variationist study of interview data extracted from the Project for the Sociolinguistic Study of Spanish for Spain and America (PRESEEA) Guatemala corpus, I will argue that it is indeed the indefinite article that shows signs of retarded grammaticalization. Yet, rather than extending to the variety as a whole, this retardation is context-specific.

The position of Piedmontese on the Romance grammaticalization cline

AbstractThe paper focuses on the pace of grammaticalization in (a number of varieties of) Piedmontese, a northwestern Italo-Romance language (which includes a regional koiné and several dialectal varieties), and compares it to the geographically closest languages conventionally discussed in the literature on the Romance grammaticalization cline (RGC): French and Italian. I examine the speed of grammaticalization in Piedmontese with respect to four grammatical domains previously analyzed for national languages in the literature on RGC, namely perfective auxiliaries, indefinite articles, demonstratives, and negation. The data show that Piedmontese varieties are on a par with, or even slightly ahead of, French along the Romance grammaticalization cline. While helping to explain why some languages appear to be more grammaticalized than others within the same genealogical family, these findings contribute to advancing our understanding of the role of language-external factors in the grammaticalization process: contact with other languages and the strength of social ties among speakers appear to be more important in favoring grammaticalization than early urbanization or the size of the speaker community.

Copy Raising in English, German, and Dutch: Synchrony and Diachrony

This study discusses copy raising in English, German, and Dutch from both a synchronic and diachronic perspective. Synchronically, copy raising has the same purpose in all three languages: to mark direct evidence. However, the languages differ in whether they allow their ‘seem’-verbs to appear in copy-raised constructions: Englishseemcan copy raise, Germanscheinencannot, whereas the status of Dutchlijkenis undecided. This difference is explained by the diachronic development of these verbs: Englishseemhas developed the furthest along the grammaticalization cline of ‘seem’-verbs, Germanscheinenis the most conservative in its development, and Dutchlijkenhas developed quite late, but is quickly catching up to Englishseem. Even though it is too early to tell, this distribution hints at a Van Haeringen pattern.*

Modern Vilamovicean — Complex Decay of a Case System

The article analyzes synchronic properties and diachronic tendencies that characterize the case system of Vilamovicean (Wymysorys). The author studies the issue of morphological case in five word classes (nouns, pronouns, articles, numerals and adjectives), explains dynamics that couple them (e.g. analogical developments and borrowing from one paradigm to an other) and proposes a holistic classification of the entire case system within an framework of linguistic typology, grammaticalization theory and cognitive mapping. The evidence indicates that, overall, the Vilamovicean case system is highly advanced. By following the common grammaticalization cline of case marking, the language develops from being more morphologically oriented towards a stage where case is marked syntactically. However, the progression along this grammaticalization path is dissimilar in different sub-systems. It is most advanced in nouns and numerals, less advanced in adjectives and least advanced in pronouns and articles.

Size nouns matter: a closer look at mass(es) of and extended uses of SNs

While a fair share of attention has recently been devoted to the grammaticalization process of size nouns in general (see Traugott, 2008) and individual case studies in particular (see Brems, 2003; Verveckken, 2012; De Clerck & Colleman 2011), there is still enough food for thought and room for further analysis. In this paper we want to address two aspects that have not received sufficient attention so far. First, we will focus on grammaticalized uses of yet two other size nouns (SNs), i.e. mass of and masses of and compare their quantificational potential with other SNs, such as bunch, heap and load of as studied in Brems (2011). This comparison will call for a repositioning of SNs on the grammaticalization cline and a reassessment of the criteria used in Brems (2011) and the notion of degree of grammaticalization. Secondly, we will shift attention away from ‘common’ quantifying uses to intensifying adverbial uses of SNs, e.g. heaps nicer, and the possible effect these uses have on their current position on the grammaticalization cline.

Demonstrative or article? The case of ten in Polish

The paper discusses the syntactic status of the Polish demonstrative pronoun ten ‘this’ in the light of grammaticalization theory. The discussion begins with establishing formal (morphosyntactic) as well as semantic criteria for discriminating between articles and demonstratives. Then it reviews arguments for the demonstrative status of ten put forward in the literature. The paper ends with providing evidence for the definite article status of ten . Although the primary function of ten is still that of a demonstrative pronoun, it reveals some traces of categorial change on the grammaticalization cline in spoken Polish.

Morpho-phonological levels and grammaticalization in Karimojong: A review of the evidence

An analysis of the affixation processes and the phonological rules governing [ATR] harmony in Karimojong verbs permits the organization of derivational processes into three levels. On each level specific groups of morphemes are affixed and the resultant derived words undergo defined sets of phonological processes. On Level 1 a feature filling [±ATR] harmony rule applies, in which the [ATR] feature spreads bi-directionally from the principal root vowel across the root and all Level 1 affixes. However, there are also localized disharmonic domains created by phonologized co-articulation effects of consonants and dissimilation rules for vowels. On Level 2, suffixation of Tense-Mood-Aspect (TMA) markers at the right edge of the verbal complex triggers [+ATR] feature spreading leftward across the derived word. On Level 3 affixation does not trigger [ATR] harmony processes, and both affix vowels and the derivational complexes to which they are added retain their [ATR] features. Some Karimojong affixes exhibit behaviors characteristic of two different levels, depending on context; these affixes are proposed to be in transition between levels. The three levels are proposed to result from diachronic evolution, and their relative chronological development can be established by (1) correspondences to landmarks within the cross-linguistically attested agreement system grammaticalization cline, which groups affixes according to ordering universals, and (2) the existence of successive evolutionary cycles of frequentive morphology. A model of the morphology-phonology interface is proposed in which linguistic structure internal to the morpheme channels the spread of [ATR] features. The model provides an explanation for surface irregularities that originated at the time of areal vowel mergers in Nilotic languages (Dimmendaal, 2002).

Quantifiers as negative markers in Italian dialects

In this work we consider the diachronic development of two distinct types of negative markers, those originally stemming from minimizers (m-negation) and those originally deriving from a negative quantifier (q-negation). We provide evidence in favor of the hypothesis that, despite appearances, they do not follow the same grammaticalization path. We claim that the distinct syntactic position of the two types of negation in the modern dialects depends on the distinct evolution path they have taken, which in turn depends on their original properties. While minimizers change their position during the grammaticalization cline, q-negation stays in the same position throughout the whole process. If this is correct, it means that Jespersen’s cycle is not syntactically homogenous and that the result of a postverbal negative marker can be achieved by means of various strategies.

The grammaticalization of you know

Most accounts of you know as a discourse marker underline shared knowledge as its core value. This study focuses on less standard values of you know where it functions as an introducer of new viewpoints or pieces of information, as a marker of the speakers’ will to impose their viewpoint, or as an emphasizing marker. We show that the loss of the spatio-temporal anchoring of the sequence and the evolution of its prosodic features are characteristics of those particular uses of you know. This leads us to propose a grammaticalization cline with clearcut stages, where the more argumentative uses of you know correspond to the rightmost stage of the cline <propositional – textual – interpersonal> (Traugott and Dasher 2002).

From matrix clause to pragmatic marker

The interpersonal pragmatic markers (now) look (here), look you, lookee, lookahere, and lookit are shown to be the result of originally free matrix clauses which become syntactically fixed, are reanalyzed as sentence adjuncts, and undergo internal coalescence, a process which began in the seventeenth century. Their development is considered an instance of grammaticalization exhibiting most, though not all, of the characteristics of the process. A new grammaticalization cline is proposed to account for the unidirectionality of the development.