Catalan Journal of Linguistics https://revistes.uab.cat/catjl <p>The main purpose of the <em>Catalan Journal of Linguistics</em> (CatJL) is to publish research papers concerned with the structure of particular languages from the wider perspective of a general theory of the human language. <br />Grown out of its predecessor, the <em>Catalan Working Papers in Linguistics</em> (CatWPL), this publication is made possible thanks to the cooperation of the <a href="http://filcat.uab.cat/clt/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Centre de Lingüística Teòrica of the UAB</a> with the <a href="http://web.ua.es/iifv/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Institut Interuniversitari de Filologia Valenciana</a>. <br />This journal publishes monographic volumes (under commision) that feature research papers devoted to the formal study of languages. </p> Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona en-US Catalan Journal of Linguistics 1695-6885 Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:<br /><ol type="a"><li>Authors retain copyright.</li><li>The texts published in this journal are – unless indicated otherwise – covered by the Creative Commons Spain <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0</a> licence. You may copy, distribute, transmit and adapt the work, provided you attribute it (authorship, journal name, publisher) but you may not use the material for commercial purposes in the manner specified by the author(s) or licensor(s). The full text of the licence can be consulted here: <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/</a>.</li><li>Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.</li><li>Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See <a href="http://opcit.eprints.org/oacitation-biblio.html" target="_new">The Effect of Open Access</a>).</li></ol> Presentation https://revistes.uab.cat/catjl/article/view/v23-martines-etal <p>Presentation of the Catalan Journal of Linguistics 23: Semantic Change in Grammaticalization.</p> Josep Martines Peres Sandra Montserrat Buendia Jordi M. Antolí Martínez Copyright (c) 2024 Josep Martines Peres, Sandra Montserrat Buendia, Jordi M. Antolí Martínez https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0 2024-10-17 2024-10-17 23 7 11 10.5565/rev/catjl.481 Grammaticalization and Diachronic Structural Pattern https://revistes.uab.cat/catjl/article/view/v23-company <p>The paper posits the hypothesis that if a form or construction entering a process of grammaticalization has a diachronic structural pattern, the grammaticalization may become entrenched and strengthened; it can recategorize and move easily into other grammatical areas, can make more complex diachronic paths, and will progress better than a change without a pattern. The paper poses two types of structural pattern: an intraparadigmatic one and an interparadigmatic one. The empirical evidence is the grammaticalization of the predication <em>dice que</em> into the evidential discourse marker <em>dizque</em> and later into the adjective <em>dizque</em>. The paper examines two patterns supporting this grammaticalization: first, the various grammaticalizations undergone by the verb <em>decir</em> into different discourse particles, an intraparadigmatic pattern, and second, three predications that undergone the same diachronic path: <em>que es que &gt; quesque; puede que &gt; pueque; vaya &gt; ¡vaya!</em>, an interparadigmatic pattern.</p> Concepción Company Company Copyright (c) 2024 Concepción Company Company https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0 2024-10-17 2024-10-17 23 13 39 10.5565/rev/catjl.460 Drawing Parallels Between Language Change Processes: Grammaticalization, Constructionalization and Phraseologization https://revistes.uab.cat/catjl/article/view/v23-sanchez <p>Over the last decades, the acknowledgment of the dynamic character of language has led to the focus on language evolution and change. Among the different streams of linguistics, Historical linguistics (morphosyntax), Construction Grammar and Phraseology have paid attention to these processes, studying grammaticalization, constructionalization and phraseologization, respectively. The three frameworks we are dealing with were quite different in origin, but through the adoption of cognitive, usage-based, pragmatic approaches they are tending to converge. In this paper we will outline the respective frameworks, their conception of language unit and the process of change, including its mechanisms and stages. In each section, we will include some applications in Catalan language. As we consider them to be complementary, since they account for different items of language, at the end we will suggest an integration of the three of them.</p> Elena Sánchez-López Copyright (c) 2024 Elena Sánchez-López https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0 2024-10-17 2024-10-17 23 41 71 10.5565/rev/catjl.448 (In)Transitivity, Semantic Change, and Reanalysis: The Diachrony of the Spanish Verb “Volver” https://revistes.uab.cat/catjl/article/view/v23-vatrican <p>Our aim in this paper is to explain the progressive semantic change of the Spanish verb <em>volver</em> from the 13th century until the 21st. We will show that at the beginning, its unique use is a transitive one, from Latin until the 14th. Then it acquired an intransitive use in the 15th. We will claim that the semantic change meaning of this verb from the transitive use to the intransitive, ending by the grammaticalization of the verb with the creation of a periphrasis (<em>volver a</em> + infinitive), is part of a ‘reanalysis’ process of the semantic relation between both cases the agent and the patient in the eventive structure and, consequently, of the subject and the object complement in the syntactic distribution. The semantic core which conveys a metaphorical or a spatial path toward a goal (“to make a rotary motion, to turn”) is unchanged. We claim that the telic character of the verb allowed it to impose itself and to replace <em>tornar</em>.</p> Axelle Vatrican Copyright (c) 2024 Axelle Vatrican https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0 2024-10-17 2024-10-17 23 73 104 10.5565/rev/catjl.440 “¿Cabe decir algo más?” An Inquiry into the Historical Development of a Modal and Discursive Verbal Periphrasis in Spanish https://revistes.uab.cat/catjl/article/view/v23-garachana <p>The main objective of this article is to reassess the pivotal role of semantic change within the framework of grammaticalisation and its intricate relationship with both textual and sentence syntax. To analyse the interaction between semantics and syntax in processes of grammaticalisation, we will study the evolution of the verbal construction <em>caber</em> + INF, which in contemporary Spanish specialises in (i) expressing modal senses, lying midway between dynamic and deontic values, and (ii) a procedural value that limits the speaker’s commitment to what they affirm.</p> Mar Garachana Copyright (c) 2024 Mar Garachana https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0 2024-10-17 2024-10-17 23 105 133 10.5565/rev/catjl.451 A First-Phase Syntax Approach to Grammaticalization: Evidence from the Spanish Pseudo-Copula “Quedar(se)” https://revistes.uab.cat/catjl/article/view/v23-gomez-mateu <p>The pseudo-copula <em>quedar(se)</em> &lt;‘end up’ + adjective&gt; in Spanish is used as a test field to understand how the pressures ensuing from the loss of non-syntactic semantic information can be the trigger for changes in a verb’s argument structure information. Using data from corpora, we explore how the grammaticalization process of the pseudo-copula unfolded to yield an aspectual copula devoid of lexical meaning. To that end, we examine the properties of the pseudo-copula in current day Spanish and put forth a First-Phase syntax approach (Ramchand 2008) to its argument structure using her notion of <em>underassociation</em>.</p> Diana Gómez Vázquez Jaume Mateu Copyright (c) 2024 Diana Gómez Vázquez, Jaume Mateu https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0 2024-10-17 2024-10-17 23 135 161 10.5565/rev/catjl.450 “Bien mirado”: Absolute Clause and Discourse Marker https://revistes.uab.cat/catjl/article/view/v23-cifuentes <p>This paper analyzes the construction <em>bien mirado</em> as a discursive marker. In the first part, based on the data provided by the CDH and CORPES corpora, we will examine the discursive functioning of <em>bien mirado</em> and the delimitation problems associated with the constructions of absolute clause or free adjunct, taking especially into account the notions of subject of predication, coreferentiality, the semantic relationship between the main clause introduced by <em>bien mirado</em> and the previous discursive element, the position (initial, medial, or final), the parenthetical character, as well as the argumentative and informative values, along with the reformulating one. In the second part, we will instead focus on the origins of the construction, on the contrastive historical delimitation with absolute clauses and on the frequency distribution, additionally developing a hypothesis about the subjectification process involved in discourse functioning – linked to the discursive character of absolute constructions, the parenthetical nature, and the meaning of <em>mirar</em> as a verb of thought or judgment.</p> José Luis Cifuentes Honrubia Copyright (c) 2024 José Luis Cifuentes Honrubia https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0 2024-10-17 2024-10-17 23 163 198 10.5565/rev/catjl.433 The Catalan Epistemic Modal Marker “Pot molt ben ser”: from Emphatic Possibility to High Probability https://revistes.uab.cat/catjl/article/view/v23-massanell <p>In this article I deal with the Catalan epistemic marker <em>pot molt ben ser</em> ‘it may very well be’, which expresses high confidence on the part of the speaker in the truth value of the propositional content of his utterance. I start by extracting examples of the construction from the <em>CICA</em>, <em>CIVAL</em> and <em>CTILC</em> computerized corpora, and then analyse them within the framework of the Invited Inference Theory of Semantic Change (Traugott &amp; Dasher 2002). Grammaticalization begins in contexts in which the modal periphrasis with <em>poder</em> ‘can, may/might’ as auxiliary and <em>ésser</em> ‘be’ as main verb is intensified with the interpolation of the adverb <em>ben</em> ‘well’, the resulting construction serving as an expressive resource to defend the existence of a previously denied possibility. Through bridge contexts that allow the interlocutor to infer that the speaker values the propositional content of his statement as not only possible but even probable, as happens when the emphatic expression is intended to reinforce a neutral one, or when it is accompanied by a causal clause that gives it inferential value, the conventionalization of the high probability meaning eventually comes about.</p> Mar Massanell i Messalles Copyright (c) 2024 Mar Massanell i Messalles https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0 2024-10-17 2024-10-17 23 199 247 10.5565/rev/catjl.442 The Romance Subjunctive Schema. Grammaticalisations and Constructionalisations in a Comparative CxG Analysis of Spanish, Catalan, French, and Italian https://revistes.uab.cat/catjl/article/view/v23-radatz <p>This article applies the principles of Construction Grammar (CxG) to the problem of describing the various subjunctive-constructions in the Romance languages. Departing from a very basic mother construction, all other uses are derived from it via the concept of constructionalisation (c.f. Traugott &amp; Trousdale 2013). The description thus takes the form of a cognitive network that can be represented as a graphic in which all ramifications are represented in a way that allows a synoptic vision of all subjunctive schemas of a given language. These charts are then used for a comparison between various Romance languages. The most important difference appears to be the development of the Honorific-Imperative Construction in all those languages that have developed a formal address-system based on morphologically 3rd person pronouns (Vd., você, vostè); in these languages, morphological subjunctives have given rise to a whole new paradigm of “neo-imperatives”.</p> Hans-Ingo Radatz Copyright (c) 2024 Hans-Ingo Radatz https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0 2024-10-17 2024-10-17 23 249 281 10.5565/rev/catjl.445 Light Verbs and Grammaticalization. Evidence From the Catalan Light Verb “Agafar” https://revistes.uab.cat/catjl/article/view/v23-ginebra <p>Determining the linguistic nature of light verbs – whether they are lexical or grammatical units – is still an open question. Light verbs are often characterised as delexicalized. Thus, grammaticalization would be the process by which a lexical verb (lexical unit) assumes the value of a light verb (grammatical unit). However, it has also been argued that light verbs are just regular verbs, albeit ones with little semantic specification. If they are, there can be no grammaticalization, at least in principle. Nevertheless, even if light verbs are considered lexical verbs, the way they evolve invite to relate them to grammaticalization processes. In this paper I contribute to the debate by providing evidence on the historical evolution of the Catalan verb <em>agafar</em> ‘to take, to catch, to pick, to get’. The conclusion is not firm, but suggests that the description of light verbs can benefit from the framework of grammaticalization.</p> Jordi Ginebra Copyright (c) 2024 Jordi Ginebra https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0 2024-10-17 2024-10-17 23 283 297 10.5565/rev/catjl.449 The Grammaticalization of Numeral ‘One’ in Slavic: From Quantification to (Non-) Referentiality https://revistes.uab.cat/catjl/article/view/v23-seres <p>The article presents a corpus-based investigation of the distribution and interpretation of ‘<em>one</em>’ + N combination in six Slavic languages (Russian, Ukrainian, Czech, Serbian, Macedonian, and Bulgarian). The study aims at determining whether there is an ongoing process of grammaticalization of the numeral ‘one’ in Slavic, and, if so, at what stage of grammaticalization is each language situated in the synchrony. In order to categorize the relevant uses of ‘one’ a system of semantic annotation is devised. The results of the study show different degree of grammaticalization of ‘one’ in the languages under study, with Russian and Ukrainian being in the beginning of the path (with occasional referential uses attested), Czech and Serbian being in between (with a significant frequency of referential uses), and Bulgarian and Macedonian being the most advanced on the scale (with a few non-referential uses). None of the languages has a fully grammaticalized indefinite article.</p> Daria Seres Copyright (c) 2024 Daria Seres https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0 2024-10-17 2024-10-17 23 299 324 10.5565/rev/catjl.443