Catalan Journal of Linguistics

Presentation

Josep Martines Peres, Sandra Montserrat Buendia, Jordi M. Antolí Martínez — Thu, 17 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Presentation of the Catalan Journal of Linguistics 23: Semantic Change in Grammaticalization.

Grammaticalization and Diachronic Structural Pattern

Concepción Company Company — Thu, 17 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

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 dice que into the evidential discourse marker dizque and later into the adjective dizque. The paper examines two patterns supporting this grammaticalization: first, the various grammaticalizations undergone by the verb decir into different discourse particles, an intraparadigmatic pattern, and second, three predications that undergone the same diachronic path: que es que > quesque; puede que > pueque; vaya > ¡vaya!, an interparadigmatic pattern.

Drawing Parallels Between Language Change Processes: Grammaticalization, Constructionalization and Phraseologization

Elena Sánchez-López — Thu, 17 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

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.

(In)Transitivity, Semantic Change, and Reanalysis: The Diachrony of the Spanish Verb “Volver”

Axelle Vatrican — Thu, 17 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Our aim in this paper is to explain the progressive semantic change of the Spanish verb volver 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 (volver a + 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 tornar.

“¿Cabe decir algo más?” An Inquiry into the Historical Development of a Modal and Discursive Verbal Periphrasis in Spanish

Mar Garachana — Thu, 17 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

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 caber + 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.

A First-Phase Syntax Approach to Grammaticalization: Evidence from the Spanish Pseudo-Copula “Quedar(se)”

Diana Gómez Vázquez, Jaume Mateu — Thu, 17 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The pseudo-copula quedar(se) <‘end up’ + adjective> 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 underassociation.

“Bien mirado”: Absolute Clause and Discourse Marker

José Luis Cifuentes Honrubia — Thu, 17 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This paper analyzes the construction bien mirado 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 bien mirado 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 bien mirado 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 mirar as a verb of thought or judgment.

The Catalan Epistemic Modal Marker “Pot molt ben ser”: from Emphatic Possibility to High Probability

Mar Massanell i Messalles — Thu, 17 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

In this article I deal with the Catalan epistemic marker pot molt ben ser ‘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 CICA, CIVAL and CTILC computerized corpora, and then analyse them within the framework of the Invited Inference Theory of Semantic Change (Traugott & Dasher 2002). Grammaticalization begins in contexts in which the modal periphrasis with poder ‘can, may/might’ as auxiliary and ésser ‘be’ as main verb is intensified with the interpolation of the adverb ben ‘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.

The Romance Subjunctive Schema. Grammaticalisations and Constructionalisations in a Comparative CxG Analysis of Spanish, Catalan, French, and Italian

Hans-Ingo Radatz — Thu, 17 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

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 & 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”.

Light Verbs and Grammaticalization. Evidence From the Catalan Light Verb “Agafar”

Jordi Ginebra — Thu, 17 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

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 agafar ‘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.

The Grammaticalization of Numeral ‘One’ in Slavic: From Quantification to (Non-) Referentiality

Daria Seres — Thu, 17 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The article presents a corpus-based investigation of the distribution and interpretation of ‘one’ + 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.