Storage as a way to grammaticalization

This paper explores the possible contribution of various types of storage to grammaticalization processes, and the description of such processes by means of Construction Grammar(s) (CxG). The grammaticalization processes of French pas and certain complex adpositions in German and Finnish serve to illustrate that storage can background the literal meaning of elements like pas, thus enabling the constructions containing them to grammaticalize. A further form of storage, the emergence of a productive template on the basis of high type frequency, may in turn stand behind their grammaticalization. Two further assumptions about language use are also exploited in the explanation of grammaticalization: the possibility of processing complex units holistically and a human urge to interpret recurring forms as signs.

Context types in grammaticalization as constructions

In recent grammaticalization studies, the notion of “context types” has been employed to describe the successive diachronic stages that are associated with grammaticalization processes. It has been shown that a new grammatical function does not arise homogenously in all uses of the linguistic item concerned, but in its origin is bound to specific linguistic “contexts” or “constructions”. However, the notions of “context” as well as “construction” differ greatly among scholars, and research into the impact of constructions in grammaticalization scenarios, and into ways to formalized context types and constructions for diachronic purposes has only begun. The present study advances in this direction as it links the notion of context types of grammaticalization studies with central concepts of construction grammar. Using diachronic data from grammaticalization phenomena of German, successive types of contexts, i.e. critical contexts and isolating contexts, which are typically found in grammaticalization processes, are analyzed as specific types of idiomatic constructions in the sense the term is used in construction grammar.

Friedrike. Schauspiel

Mode of access: Internet.

Der Rechtsstreit der Erben der verstorbenen fuerstinnen Wilhelmine Friedrike, Fuerstin von Oettingen Wallerstein, un Henriette :

Mode of access: Internet.

Hipotaxe e Gramaticalização: uma Análise das Construções de Tempo e de Condição

This paper studies complex sentences with temporal hypotatic clauses and with conditional hypotatic clauses in order to investigate the degree of grammaticalization shown by these two kinds of utterances. Our hypothesis is that the more the hypotatic clause is integrated to the nuclear clause, the greater is the degree of grammaticalization. Such degree of integration was measured according to three groups of factors, and the results show that, regarding two of the variables evaluated, the conditional clauses are the most integrated to their nucleus, but, in another rank of evaluation, the temporal clauses are the most integrated ones. Considering that this study is based on a functionalist view, the results may be interpreted according to the principle that there is a competition of motivations in the use of language, so that each utterance reflects the balance of such forces.

The predicate marker li in Mauritian Creole

There is a morpheme 'li' in Mauritian Creole (MC), which is homophonous with the 3sg pronoun, and which, in the early creole, occurs frequently between the subject and the predicate in affirmative, present tense clauses. I propose that that 'li' may have originated as a resumptive pronoun, co-referential with the subject, but following the grammaticalization of new determiner elements to mark the semantic contrasts of [±definite] and singular vs. plural, 'li' has now grammaticalized into a predicate marker. Its presence is sensitive to both the nature of the predicate, and to the definiteness and specificity features of the subject NP. My analysis is within the framework of Truth Conditional Semantics, where indefinite NPs are analyzed as variables that get introduced into the discourse, and must be bound by an operator to yield a closed proposition, with a truth value. Drawing on a comparison with a cognative morpheme 'i' in Seychellois Creole, I claim that its path to grammaticalization is linked to that of the specificity marking 'la'.

Coding Strategies of Indirect Reported Speech in Typological Perspective

The purpose of this paper is to provide a cross-linguistic survey of the variation of coding strategies that are available for the grammatical distinction between direct and indirect speech representation with a particular focus on the expression of indirect reported speech. Cross-linguistic data from a sample of 42 languages will be provided to illustrate the range of available grammatical coding strategies.

The emergence of the determiner system in Mauritian Creole: a syntax semantics mapping

This paper describes the emergence of new functional items in the Mauritian Creole noun phrase, following the collapse of the French determiner system when superstrate and substrate came into contact. The aim of the paper is to show how the new language strived to express the universal semantic contrasts of (in)definiteness and singular vs. plural. The process of grammaticalization of new functional items in the determiner system was accompanied by changes in the syntax from French to creole. An analysis within Chomsky’s Minimalist framework (1995, 2000, 2001) suggests that these changes were driven by the need to map semantic features onto the syntax.

Alright: a distinctive pathway of change from the 18th century to the present day

The origins of the vast majority of the words we use in contemporary English go back as far as Old or Middle English. In contrast, alright and all right in their present-day application appear to be the result of a more recent evolution, as there is no evidence of their use, not even in the two-word form, in the published fiction before the 18th century. Furthermore, there are not in the research literature, at least to my knowledge, any previous linguistic studies on this specific subject matter. The present article is simply an attempt to describe the various processes of diachronic change that brought about the emergence of alright.