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.

Passives without actives: evidence from verbless complement clauses in Spanish

This paper proposes a constructionist analysis à la Goldberg (1995, 2003, 2006) of passive verbless configurations in Spanish lacking a felicitous active counterpart.Under the paradigmatic – rather than syntagmatic – view of passives invoked in this paper, configurations of the type in (1) above, attested with a number of verba cogitandi et dicendi, are handled as instances of the Impersonal Subjective-Transitive construction, whose general skeletal meaning is X (NP1) attributed Y (XPCOMP) by Z (NP2) in a direct, categorical way. Moreover, the analysis proposed here also provides a satisfactory account of the distribution of grammatical subjects and the XPCOMPs, while also capturing the commonalities with “regular” passives (i.e. those with a felicitous active counterpart). In addition, Spanish passive verbless complement configurations with se dice (‘is said’) are shown to illustrate a three-point continuum consisting of (i) non-grammaticalized configurations with an active counterpart, (ii) non-grammaticalized configurations without an active counterpart, and (iii) grammaticalized configurations without an active counterpart. From a synchronic point of view, the structural and semantico-pragmatic properties exhibited by the lower-level lo que se dice XPFOCUS construction, involving a focusing/emphasizer subjunct function (e.g. verdaderamente ‘really’) as well as a reformulatory connective use (e.g. o sea ‘that is’, en otras palabras ‘in other words’) appear to point to an early process of grammaticalization, exhibiting decategorialization as well as generalization of meaning in conjunction with a prominent increase in pragmatic function and subjectification (cf. Traugott 1988, 1995a, 1995b, 2003).

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.

Sea Level Pressure Variability Over the Southern Indian Ocean Inferred from a Glaciochemical Record in Princess Elizabeth Land, East Antarctica

A 250-year, high-resolution, multivariate ice core record from LGB65 (70degrees50'07"S, 77degrees04'29"E; 1850 m asl), Princess Elizabeth Land (PEL), is used to investigate sea level pressure (SLP) variability over the southern Indian Ocean (SIO). Empirical orthogonal function (EOF) analysis reveals that the first EOF (EOF1) of the glaciochemical record from LGB65 represents most of the variability in sea salt throughout the 250-year record. EOF1 is negatively correlated (95% confidence level and higher) to instrumental mean sea level pressure (MSLP) at Kerguelen and New Amsterdam islands, SIO. On the basis of comparison with NCEP/NCAR reanalysis, strong correlations were found between sea-salt variations and a quasi-stationary low that lies to the north of Prydz Bay, SIO. Comparison with a 250-year-long summer transpolar index (STPI) inferred from sub-Antarctic tree ring records reveals strong coherency. Decadal-scale SLP variability over SIO suggests shifting of the polar vortex. Prominent decadal-scale deepening of the southern Indian Ocean low (SIOL) exists circa 1790, 1810, 1835, 1860, 1880, 1900, and 1940 A. D., continuously after the 1970s, and prominent weakening circa 1750, 1795, 1825, 1850, 1870, 1890, 1910, and 1955 A. D. The LGB65 sea-salt record is characterized by significant decadal-scale variability with a strong similar to21-year periodic structure (99.9% confidence level). The relationship between LGB65 sea salt and solar irradiance changes shows that this periodicity is possibly the solar Hale cycle ( 22 years).