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The Japanese perception verb mieru is an intransitive verb with spontaneous and potential meanings. The constructions that this verb constitutes range from visual perception, which is the simplest in meaning and form, to the highly complex evidential construction. Additional construction types lie between these two extremes, one of which express a certain situation on the basis of the appearance of a theme (object), and the other of which generalizes several examples observed by the perceiver. All of these are related to constructions with transitive verbs, while some of them have been extended as specific constructions of mieru due to the interaction between the lexical meaning of the verb and the meaning of the construction. Furthermore, this study shows that by focusing on the meaning features of the nouns, verbs, and clauses that make up the construction, it is possible to identify the typicality and periphery of the constructions and to capture the continuity between constructions (the network of constructions).

言語学

This paper investigates the use of verbs in the expression of negation across Bantu. The development of erstwhile lexical verbs into markers of negation is an understudied yet widespread phenomenon across the language family. In this sample of 100 languages, we identify a range of pathways as well as specific functions performed by such verbs. Specifically, we identify the use of both intrinsic negative verbs — i.e. those with inherent negative meanings — and extrinsic negative verbs — i.e. those which do not have an inherently negative meaning, but which have assumed dedicated negative functions through their use in specific constructions. This latter category can further be divided into two subtypes: those with negative inflectional material and those without. Across our sample, we explore the use of negative verbs in main clauses, non-declarative clauses such as prohibitives and interrogatives, non-verbal predicative clauses, as well as in non-main clause contexts such as in complement, relative and adverbial clauses. We further explore negative verbs for negation of infinitives and in non-clausal negation. In this endeavor, we offer a refined understanding of the development and distribution of verbs as negators in Bantu languages, while also broadening our understanding of negation in general. Cet article étudie l’utilisation des verbes dans l’expression de la négation dans les langues bantoues. L’évolution des anciens verbes lexicaux en marqueurs de négation est un phénomène peu étudié et pourtant très répandu dans cette famille de langues. Dans cet échantillon de 100 langues, nous identifions une série de chemins de grammaticalisation ainsi que des fonctions spécifiques remplies par de tels verbes. Plus précisément, nous identifions l’utilisation de verbes négatifs intrinsèques (c’est-à-dire ceux qui ont une signification négative inhérente), et de verbes négatifs extrinsèques (c’est-à-dire ceux qui n’ont pas de signification négative inhérente, mais qui ont assumé des fonctions négatives spécifiques par le biais de leur utilisation dans des constructions particulières). Cette dernière catégorie peut être divisée en deux sous-types : ceux qui ont un marquage flexionnel de la négation et ceux qui n’en ont pas. Dans notre échantillon, nous étudions l’utilisation de verbes négatifs dans les propositions principales, les propositions non déclaratives telles que les prohibitives et les interrogatives, les propositions prédicatives non verbales, ainsi que dans des contextes de propositions subordonnées telles que les propositions complétives, relatives et adverbiales. Nous étudions également les verbes négatifs pour la négation de l’infinitif et la négation non propositionnelle. Ce faisant, nous offrons une compréhension fine du développement et de la distribution des verbes en tant que négateurs dans les langues bantoues, tout en élargissant notre compréhension de la négation en général.

V prispevku je obravnavan proces postopne gramatikalizacije glagolskih predpon, do katerega je prihajalo že v pozni praslovanščiini. Posledično se v slovanskih jezikih pojavljajo tri vrste pomenov glagolskih predpon (krajevni, vrsta glagolskega dejanja, dovršnost). Na osnovi tega spoznanja je dopolnjena tipologija pomenov glagolskih predpon sestavljenih glagolov z neleksikaliziranim pomenom v slovenščiini. In the article, the process of gradual grammaticalization of verbal prefixes which took place in late Proto-Slavic is discussed. Consequently, in the Slavic languages three types of verbal prefix meaning occur (i.e. spatial meaning, lexical and grammatical aspect). Following this methodological frame, the existing typology of verbal prefix meanings of prefixed verbs with non-lexicalized meaning in Slovene is presented.

En linguistique, un corpus est défini comme un ensemble de données langagières (discours, textes, conversations, etc.) accompagnées d’annotations et de métadonnées. Parmi les différents types de corpus possibles, on retrouve les corpus parallèles bidirectionnels, comprenant un texte original dans une langue A et sa traduction dans une langue B et vice versa. Ce type de corpus est utilisé pour étudier et comparer plusieurs langues. Notre recherche porte sur les mots « aller » et « venir » en français, ainsi que leurs équivalents ไป paj et มา ma en thaï. Ces mots sont polyfonctionnels dans les deux langues (i.e. ils possèdent des sens lexicaux et grammaticaux, par exemple verbe et auxiliaire). Nous avons travaillé à partir d’un corpus parallèle bidirectionnel littéraire français-thaï (du français vers le thaï : Maïté Coiffure, Marie-Aude Murail 2004 ; et du thaï vers le français : Le Bonheur de Kati, Jane Vejjajiva 2003). L’objectif principal de la recherche présentée ici est de répondre aux difficultés d’emplois de « aller » et « venir » en français et en thaï chez les apprenants respectivement de FLE (français langue étrangère) et de TFL (Thai as a Foreign Language) En effet, ces mots peuvent alternativement être utilisés comme verbes lexicaux et comme auxiliaires de temps, d’aspect ou de modalité. Nous souhaitons montrer l’utilité d’une recherche linguistique à base d’un corpus pour l’enseignement et l’étude des langues étrangères. En d’autres termes, en quoi l’étude de ces quatre mots à travers notre corpus peut être utilisée pour répondre aux difficultés des apprenants, et de manière plus générale, quelles sont les applications possibles de tels corpus en description des langues, en enseignement, mais également en traduction. In linguistics, a corpus is a set of annotated linguistic data (speeches, texts, conversations, etc.) and metadata. Among the different types of corpora, the bidirectional parallel corpus is a corpus made of an original text (in a language A) and its translation in a language B, and vice versa. This kind of corpus is used to study and compare different languages. Our study focuses on the words “come” and “go” in French (venir and aller) and in Thai (มา ma and ไป pai). In both languages, these words are polyfunctional (i.e., they have both lexical and grammatical meanings, for instance, verb and auxiliary). We use a literary bidirectional parallel French-Thai corpus (from French to Thai : Maïté Coiffure, Marie-Aude Murail 2004 ; and from Thai to French : The Happiness of Kati, Jane Vejjajiva 2003). This study aims to address the difficulties regarding the different uses of “come” and “go” in French and Thai encountered by FLE (French as a Foreign Language) and TFL (Thai as a Foreign Language) students. These words are indeed used as full lexical verbs, or alternatively as tense-aspect-modality auxiliaries. We show how our corpus address these issues, and more generally, what are the possible applications of such corpora in language teaching and translation.

This paper examines the status of the Latin demonstrative ille and the intensifier ipse, which are the sources of definite articles in modern Romance languages. My analysis is based on the text of the Itinerarium Egeriae from the end of the fourth century AD. Using the approach of cognitive linguistics, I suggest how the articloid could be defined and how it could be distinguished semantically from its source element. I argue that both ille and ipse are used as articloids in the text. However, the original demonstrative meaning of ille and the original intensifying meaning of ipse are also attested, and in certain cases; though redundant, their use can be caused by the specific stylistics of the text. Furthermore, ipse has developed an additional meaning that establishes identity through similarity, and which might have led the path to its further grammaticalization. Therefore, both ille and ipse have a spectrum of interrelated meanings that range from those attested in Classical Latin to grammatical usage as articloids. However, as definiteness markers, their usage is not extended into contexts reserved for definite articles in languages with fully grammaticalized definiteness markers and hence its use as an articloid in the Latin of the fourth century AD could have been typologically equivalent to that of the articloid in the Baltic languages. Keywords: Late Latin, definiteness, grammaticalization, definite article, articloid.

Crosslinguistically, the development of the verb go into a future tense is a common path of grammaticalization. In contrast, the past meaning of the go-periphrasis in Catalan is unexpected. Detges (2004) claims that the process of grammaticalization of the Catalan periphrastic perfect went from inchoative to foregrounding to past. We compare data from the Corpus informatitzat del Català antic with modern Sicilian, where a similar go-periphrasis is used with a foregrounding function that resembles that of Old Catalan. This comparison confirms a foregrounding usage but fails to support the origin in an inchoative usage. We propose that the grammaticalization from movement to foregrounding does not require an intermediate inchoative stage, but that it rather results from a modal implicature of surprise and unexpectedness that was associated with the construction. Indeed, the function of go to foreground and express surprise or noteworthiness can be inferentially viewed as movement away from the speaker's expectations. Under this usage, Catalan go-periphrasis was employed to refer to 'surprising' events that took place in the past. Once this additional meaning was lost, the reference to the past was generalized beyond the implicature. El desenvolupament del verb de moviment go en un temps verbal de futur es un procés de gramaticalització comú des d'un punt de vista comparatiu. En canvi, es inesperat que en català la perifrasis amb el verb go+infinitiu adquireixi un sentit de temps passat. Segons Detges (2004) el procés de gramaticalització del passat perifràstic va començar amb un significat incoatiu, llavors va passar a ser usat per ressaltar o destacar esdeveniments i finalment va adquirir el significat de passat. Nosaltres comparem les dades del Corpus informatitzat del Català antic amb el sicilià modern, on s'usa una perifrasi del verb go amb una funció molt semblant a la del català antic com a eina per a ressaltar esdeveniments. La comparació així confirma l'ús de ressaltament però no aporta cap prova d'un origen en un ús incoatiu. Davant d'aquests fets, proposem que la gramaticalització de moviment a ressalt no requereix una etapa intermèdia d'incoatiu. Més aviat, creiem que aquesta gramaticalització resulta d'una implicatura modal de sorpresa que estava associada a la construcció. En efecte, la funció de go de ressaltar esdeveniments com a sorprenents o destacables es pot comprendre com a un moviment que s'allunya de les expectatives del parlant. En aquest ús, la perifrasi catalana va ser emprada per a presentar esdeveniments sorprenents del passat. Un cop perdut aquest significat addicional de sorpresa, la referencia al passat es va generalitzar més enllà d'aquesta implicatura.

Altres ajuts: This work has been supported by the research group "Linguistic variation in Catalan (VaLingCat)", University of València (Ref: GIUV2017-397) and a Grant for the Requalification of the Spanish University System (Ministry of Universities of the Government of Spain), funded by the European Union, NextGeneration EU (Ref: UV-EXPSOLP2U-1801406). Although the distribution of pronominal clitics in Old Catalan has been described in general terms (Fischer 2002; Batllori et al. 2005), there are no quantitative studies detailing the frequency of preverbal or postverbal clitics nor their diachronic evolution. The clitics appearing with verbs in the future and conditional tense (FC) are worth a separate mention, since these forms originate from periphrastic structures that involve an infinitive and the auxiliary verb habere, and which could appear as an analytic (dir-li he) or a synthetic form (li diré or diré-li). This paper describes the general clitic positioning and the one encountered with FC in order to verify the claim that they display parallel distributions, using a text from the 13th century, to wit Llibre dels Fets. This article analyses the pragmatic-syntactic environments in which the clitic are found, as well as the degree of grammaticalization and univerbation of the FC. Following previous work (e.g., Bouzouita & Sentí 2022), it is argued that the FC in Catalan appear to exhibit a more advanced degree of grammaticalization than the western languages of the Iberian Peninsula. Tot i que la distribució dels clítics pronominals en català antic ha estat descrita en línies generals (Fischer 2002; Batllori et al. 2005), encara no hi ha estudis empírics que analitzen la freqüència de la posició dels clítics en anteposició o posposició ni com ha evolucionat. Els clítics amb verbs en futur i condicional (FC) mereixen una anàlisi específica perquè provenen d'estructures perifràstiques amb un infinitiu i el verb auxiliar habere, les quals han donat lloc a la forma analítica (dir-li he) i a la sintètica (li diré o diré-li). Aquest estudi descriu la posició dels clítics en general i en el cas del FC en particular per comprovar que efectivament tenen una distribució equivalent, a partir d'un text del segle XIII, el Llibre dels Fets. L'article analitza els contextos pragmaticosintàctics en què apareixen els clítics, així com també el grau de gramaticalització i d'univerbació del FC. Seguint estudis previs (e.g., Bouzouita & Sentí 2022), es defensa que el FC en català sembla tenir un grau de gramaticalització més avançat que en les llengües més occidentals de la península Ibèrica.

論文 Articles

論文 Articles

Cross-linguistically, spatial expressions display a propensity to undergo semantic extensions, thus frequently giving rise to grammatical markers. Drawing on diachronic material derived from the Corpus of Historical American English and synchronic data extracted from the Corpus of Contemporary American English, this study reports on a hitherto unexplored, incipient change of this kind, namely that affecting the multiword string a/one step away from. It is shown that with the conventionalization of the invited inference of closeness, the construction at issue was reanalyzed as a complex preposition, functioning initially as an exponent of prospective aspect, then additionally as a similitude marker, and finally also as an approximator. This chronology further finds reflection in the current functional gradience of a/one step away from, in that among its grammatical instances, which amount to slightly more than half the tokens in the sample, aspectual uses constitute the largest proportion, followed by similative occurrences and degree modifier attestations. At the distributional level, the investigated case of grammaticalization manifests itself in the highly confined determination and modification patterns of the form step, counterbalanced by the entire expression’s compatibility with inanimate subjects as well as host-class expansion to abstract NPs, verbal gerunds, and adjectives.

This paper aims to investigate the usage and frequency of what we refer to as K-suffixes in Classical New Persian of the ninth to thirteenth centuries, Contemporary Written Persian of the late nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries, and Contemporary Spoken Persian. It shows that K-suffixes are most likely to be the reflexes of earlier evaluative morphemes, traditionally called “diminutives,” and are characterized by a high degree of multifunctionality. While evaluative functions continue to dominate in the Classical New Persian works, they have largely been lost in contemporary spoken Persian, and the suffix is now systematically used to express definiteness. The development of the K-suffix as a definiteness marker in contemporary colloquial Persian appears to be innovative, and is mainly dependent on genre, speaker, and speech situation.Data for Classical New Persian is taken from critical editions of works from the ninth to thirteenth centuries. The data for Contemporary Written Persian comes from comprehensive books of fiction from the late nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries, and for Contemporary Spoken Persian from an extensive corpus of spoken Persian narratives and a questionnaire answered by fifteen speakers. The results suggest that evaluative morphology can develop into definiteness marking, with the development passing through a stage of combination with a deictic marker.This paper concludes that the development of definiteness marking can proceed down a new pathway that is different from the one normally assumed for demonstrative-based definite marking, though the endpoint may be similar. The study contributes the second detailed documentation of this process for any Iranian language, and one of the few well-documented cases of a non-demonstrative origin of definiteness marking worldwide.

This investigation examines different speaking roles that lawyers may shift into, and depart from, in the monologic genre of the opening statement in three American trials, incorporating Goffman’s concept of Footing (1981) into an analysis of three high-profile trials. The findings reveal that lawyers take on three distinct discursive roles: The storyteller, the interlocutor, and the animator. In addition, indexical resources commonly associated with each role are explored which serve to contextualize such role shifts. In effect, the lawyers can subtly make the discourse argumentative and suggestive of inferences. Such discursive practices appear to stand in direct contradiction to the purpose of the opening statement.

This article explores the process of grammaticalization that has lead to the innovation of a distinct form of negation in Arizona Tewa, a Kiowa-Tanoan language spoken in the U. S. southwest. After reviewing comparative linguistic evidence that clearly establishes the innovative form of the Arizona Tewa negative, the analysis proceeds to examine ethnographic data as a means of understanding an apparent reanalysis of a subordinate clause marker as an obligatory part of negative constructions. Such data provide strong evidence for viewing the powerful role of discourse and language ideological factors in accounting for how this grammatical reanalysis both emerged and ultimately came to be the “preferred” form. Comparative data from Australian languages provides additional evidence for viewing larger discourses as highly influential contexts for grammatical change.

This paper examines the non-situational (i.e., non-exophoric) pragmatic functions of the three adnominal demonstratives, óyo, wâná, and yangó in the Bantu language Lingala. An examination of natural language corpora reveals that, although native-speaker intuitions sanction the use of óyo as an anaphor in demonstrative NPs, this demonstrative is hardly ever used in that role. It also reveals that wâná, which has both situational and discourse-referential capacities, is used more frequently than the exclusively anaphoric demonstrative yangó. It is explained that wâná appears in a wide range of non-coreferential expression types, in coreferential expression types involving low-salience referents, and in coreferential expression types that both involve highly salient referents and include the speaker’s desire to signal a shift in the mental representation of the referent towards a pejorative reading. The use of yangó, on the other hand, is only licensed in cases of coreferentiality involving highly salient referents and implying continuation of the same mental representation of the referent. A specific section is devoted to charting the possible grammaticalization paths followed by the demonstratives. Conclusions are drawn for pragmatic theory formation in terms of the relation between form (yangó vs. wâná) and function (coreferentiality vs. non-coreferentiality).

The Catalan second person singular (2sg) pronoun tu (you) has acquired a wide range of pragmatic values in spoken registers that have received little or no attention from scholars in the field. The aim of the present article is to analyse a particular emerging use of the 2sg pronoun tu from a corpus-based perspective. In the light of Grammaticalisation Theory, it is argued that whereas in some contexts this pronoun maintains all or part of its referential function (e.g. as subject or as a vocative, respectively), in other contexts its use is very similar to that of an emphatic pragmatic marker. Data drawn from three spoken corpora suggest that the pronoun has consolidated this new use. Prosodic evidence is also provided to show the semantic and pragmatic changes undergone by the pronoun.

In German and many other Germanic languages, there is no fixed order of S and O as in an SVO language such as English. Rather, the topology of the declarative non-dependent sentence is canonically defined by the position of the finite and (where relevant) the non-finite parts of the verb. Together, they build up the sentence'brace', i.e., they define the front-field (before the finite verb), middle field (between finite and non-finite parts of the verb), and end-field (which often remains empty, but accommodates, for instance, post-positioned subordinate phrases). The front-field, also called topic position, may be filled by any constituent of the sentence, obligatory or non-obligatory. However, exactly one constituent (which, of course, may be of considerable complexity) can occupy this position.2 This restriction also applies to sentence adverbials and adverbial clauses, and to relative or complement clauses. Cf. the examples in Fig. 1. English, of course, allows more than one constituent before the finite verb, for instance a subject preceded by a disjunct or conjunct (Quirk & Greenbaum 1973:242ff; also cf. Allerton & Cruttenden 7974), or an adverbial clause. Cf. the translations of the German examples (a) and (c)

Noun phrase conjunction in Akan (Niger-Congo, Kwa) is performed by placing a connective between two noun phrases, but there is some variation in the forms used in the major dialects. In the Twi dialects the connective is ne, but Fante speakers may use nye or na depending on whether a comitative or a coordinative interpretation is intended. This paper focuses on the historical origins of the noun phrase connective n(y)e in Akan. It suggests that Akan patterns with other sub-saharan African languages such as Ewe, Ga, Yoruba and Hausa, which have noun phrase connectives originating from comitative verbs. This suggestion is based on the morpho-semantics of these connectives. In addition, the paper demonstrates that the origin of the connective n(y)e could be further traced to an equative copula in the language. This conclusion is based on syntactic and semantic evidence available in the language and strengthened by the cross-linguistic tendency for copula verbs to develop into noun phrase connectives in a number of unrelated languages.

The present study examines the diachronic development of the Japanese discourse marker dakara ‘so’ from the perspective of grammaticalization with a special focus on the role of discursive strategy in its semantic-pragmatic meaning change. Stemming from the adverbial phrase soredakara ‘because it is so’, dakara originally emerged as a causal connective that introduces a consequence. Subsequently, it gained several non-causal uses, i.e. the point-making use that refers back to what has been said or inferable in the discourse to stress the point that the speaker has been trying to make, the point-clarification use that points out that the preceding interlocutor’s statements need more elaboration, and the point-denying use that indicates the speaker’s opposition to the interlocutor’s claim. Among the new non-causal uses, it is found that the point-making use emerged from the retrospective use of causality as a result of employing the discourse strategy of justification in argumentative discourse, while the point-clarification and the point-denying uses arose due to its use as a device for delaying disagreement. It is argued that these new uses developed because the expression was repeatedly used for these two discourse strategies and over time the readings associated with these contexts became conventionalized and turned into the expression’s encoded meaning. This low-level generalization seems to better explain the process of grammaticalization than the high-level generalization of (inter)subjectivity for the developments of dakara.

Totemo in contemporary Japanese is a degree adverb (intensifier). Previous studies have reported that totemo derived from the adverb totemo kakutemo, which means ‘either way’ (and hence is a bipolar item) in classical Japanese. These studies also reported that totemo became a negative polarity item (an adverb modifying words for negative evaluation), but then shifted to a positive polarity item (an adverb modifying words for positive evaluation), and that counter-expectation factors played an important role in this shift. It is reported that the ‘say’-derived complementizer develops into a hearsay evidential marker, counter-expectation marker, and in some cases an intensifier (e.g. Wang et al. 2003) in some languages. Tote in classical Japanese is known as a ‘say’-derived complementizer, but it does not grammaticalize into an intensifier. This study maintains that the intensifier totemo also derived from the verb ‘say’ and the entire process of grammaticalization of totemo may be chronologized as follows: concessive use of quotative > concessive use of hearsay evidential > counter-expectation marker > intensifier. Thus, this study reveals the language-specific development of grammaticalization of the intensifier totemo. We also reveal that a reanalysis of the concessive subordinator and the elision of the complement clause preceding totemo as a sentence initial counter-expectation marker further gave rise to the sentence-medial parenthetical phrase (intensifier) totemo.

The linguistic phenomenon of recurrence is identified in two aspects; either as a repetition of an action or a restoration to a former state. This paper examines two lexical items, an auxiliary verb san and an adverb (e)bio, which encode this phenomenon in Akan. The recurrence marker san is claimed to be the output of a grammaticalization process which has as its historical input a phonologically identical lexical verb with a restorative meaning. Even though the recurrence marker san is diachronically associated with restoration, its use gives rise to either a restorative or a repetitive assumption, in the form of an implicated premise. This assumption forms part of the context within which the utterance containing san is interpreted. Thus its function coincides with that of (e)bio, except for one particular use of the latter, associated with its occurrence at utterance-initial position. The almost identical functions of these two markers reveal the close conceptual relationship between recurrence of the repetitive and of the restorative type.

The present paper presents a detailed description of the Associated Motion system of Classical Manchu, on the basis of original texts from the 17–18th centuries. It shows that despite superficial similarities, Classical Manchu differs in many ways from previously described AM systems only comprising translocative vs. cislocative markers, such as that of Japhug. This paper provides a basic framework for further research on the typology of simple AM systems.

Linguistic theories have approached change in linguistic complexity from different perspectives. Some studies have proposed, for instance, that complexity should be measured in absolute, language-internal terms, while other studies have favored a definition of complexity that is based on evidence provided by language-external parameters, such as frequency and processing difficulty. We propose a solution to this puzzle by introducing two distinct types of complexity: structural and dynamic complexity. We test our hypothesis on three semi-modal constructions of present-day English that are currently in the process of grammaticalization: be going to, have got to and want to. We argue that linguistic theory has generally ignored the interrelation of the two types of complexity and has referred to either the former or the latter type of complexity depending on the scope and the focus of each approach., {"references":["Symeonidis, Vassilis & Nikolaos Lavidas. 2023. Linguistic complexity and theories of language in diachrony. Simplicité et complexité des langues dans l'histoire des théories linguistiques, dir. par Chloé Laplantine, John E. Joseph & Émilie Aussant. Paris : SHESL (HEL Livres, 3). 451-478."]}

Numeral incorporation describes the merging of a numeral sign with a lexical sign to create a single sign with a compositional meaning, e.g., “three weeks.” As a phenomenon of simultaneous morphology, numeral incorporation is unique to sign languages. While researchers disagree on the exact morphological structure of the construction, it has, thus far, mainly been described as a synchronic, phonological phenomenon. Using the DGS corpus, a language resource on German Sign Language, we explore the possibility of numeral incorporation resulting from a language change process, specifically a grammaticalization process. Our dataset comprises tokens belonging to nine different signs that may occur in numeral incorporations. We find a cline of three constructions in the corpus, which shows a progression from free morpheme to cliticized morpheme to bound morpheme (affix). A comparison of the usage frequency of the three constructions in different age groups reveals that signers use more incorporations the younger they are. Following the apparent time approach, these observations are taken as indicators of diachronic language change. We describe to what extent the properties of numeral incorporation fit with the grammaticalization hypothesis and conclude that while the emergence of numeral incorporation is an instance of language change and shows some aspects seen in grammaticalization, the gradual change fails to exhibit some crucial aspects of grammaticalization and, thus, should not be regarded as an example thereof.

This paper describes the lexicalization processes of the expositive adverb yijing in Chinese, taking the view that the lexicalization of yijing has been achieved by both syntactic and semantic–pragmatic contexts. There are two key processes: the grammaticalization of jing is the key factor for reanalysis of the structure yijing. Originally, jing could only be combined with NP. In the structure “yi + jing + NP experiences”, jing acquired the context in which it was possible to combine with VP. When the VP was an active situation, jing was grammaticalized into a manner adverb, while when VP was a semelfactive situation, jing, the same with yi, became a state adverb for the past tense and perfect aspect. The lexicalization of yijing contains two processes, namely reanalysis and cohesion. In the structure “yi[relative time] + jing +VP”, when there were complex elements, it was reanalyzed as “[yi + jing] + VP”, where yijing functioned as a coordinate structure. If the structure “[yi + jing] + VP” was in a sufficient conditional clause and the VP was an accomplishment situation, “yi + jing” in this context acquired the pragmatic function to confirm that an event has happened, but it was still expressing the tense–aspect meanings of the sentence. In the 7th century, when VP was an achievement situation and had a perfective verb in it, yijing no longer bore the tense–aspect function and was specialized into a confirmative expositive adverb for pragmatic function, and the lexicalization processes finished.

This article discusses the structure of directive and optative clauses in Manding languages. The discussion mainly relies on a comparison between the two Manding languages for which detailed data on directive and optative clauses are available: Mandinka and Bambara. In Manding languages, the subjunctive plays a prominent role in the expression of commands and wishes, but speakers avoid expressing wishes by means of formulations exactly identical to those used for commands. Manding languages have a dedicated optative construction in which Álá ‘God’ is followed by a dedicated optative marker, but in Mandinka, the sequence ‘Álá + optative marker’ is freezing into an optative particle, as evidenced by the fact that Álá can be repeated as the subject of the clause following the optative marker. Cet article discute la structure des phrases directives et optatives dans les langues mandingues. La discussion repose essentiellement sur une comparaison entre les deux langues mandingues pour lesquelles des données détaillées sur les phrases directives et optatives sont disponibles : Mandinka et Bambara. Dans les langues mandingues, le subjonctif joue un rôle de premier plan dans l’expression des ordres et des souhaits, mais les locuteurs évitent d’exprimer les souhaits au moyen de constructions exactement identiques à celles utilisées pour formuler des ordres. Les langues mandingues ont une construction optative spécialisée dans laquelle Álá ‘Dieu’ est suivi d’un marqueur optatif spécialisé, mais en Mandinka, la séquence‘Álá + marqueur optatif’ se fige pour devenir une particule optative, comme le montre le fait que Álá peut être répété comme le sujet de la proposition qui succède au marqueur optatif. В статье обсуждается структура директивных и оптативных предложений в языках манден. В первую очередь, речь идёт о сравнении двух языков, по которым имеется достаточно данных: мандинка и бамана. В языках манден конъюнктив играет ведующую роль в выражении приказов и пожеланий, однако говорящие на этих языках избегают выражения пожелений при помощи тех же самых конструкций, которые используются для выражения приказов. В языках манден имеется специализированная оптативная конструкция, в которых за словом Álá ‘Бог’ следует особый показатель оптатива, при этом в мандинка последовательность «Álá + показатель оптатива» превращается в оптативную частицу, и это видно по тому, что Álá может интерпретироваться как подлежащее предложения, следующего за показателем оптатива.

The Chinese language has witnessed remarkable changes in the past several decades, marked by a rapid rise of new words, frequent innovation of pseudo-affixes, and a notable increase in word length. By analyzing the creation, spread, and expansion of the new word 健康码 Jiankang-ma “health QR code”, this study sheds light on how language change takes place and how nonce formation is brought into being. Following the explosion of COVID-19 in China, 健康码 Jiankang-ma “health QR code” was created and promoted by the local and central governments and subsequently generated a large XX-码 XX-ma “XX-code” word family through various morphological processes, such as abbreviation, clipping, derivation, and analogy, where -码 -ma “-code” has acquired some new meaning distinct from its original form as a bound root. Linguistically, 健康码 Jiankang-ma “health QR code” is a three-morpheme word in a 2 + 1 length pattern, which phonologically consists of a single super foot that makes the expression catchy and appealing. The highly productive AB-C internal structure makes -码 -ma “-code”, although not yet a fully grammaticalized affix, a strong pseudo-suffix that has high morphological productivity with a fixed suffix positioning. Given the high frequency of the lexical 码 ma “code” in contemporary Chinese language use, the pseudo-suffix -码 -ma “-code” may, however, not completely replace it in the long run, as principles of grammaticalization theories predict. Instead, it is likely that both the lexical 码ma “code” and the pseudo-suffix -码 -ma “-code” will coexist side by side along split pathways.

This paper describes the historical evolution of the Spanish causative micro-constructions with the motion verbs llevar (‘take’) and traer (‘bring’) (e.g., el miedo llevó al ladrón a cometer un error, ‘the fear caused the thief to make a mistake’). In order to reconstruct the historical development of these micro-constructions between the 13th and 20th centuries, all causative uses of llevar and traer were extracted from the Corpus del Diccionario Histórico. This corpus was annotated for a series of formal and semantic parameters that count as indexes of grammaticalization, and was submitted to a quantitative productivity analysis. The results point to the existence of a subschema formed of verbs of caused accompanied motion, which has semantically specialized in the expression of indirect causation. From a formal point of view, this subschema is characterized by a low level of syntactic incorporation of the causative verb and the infinitive. In addition, it is shown that the productivity of the causative micro-constructions under study is determined by semantic changes experienced by llevar and traer as full lexical verbs during the history of Spanish. The late development of the micro-construction with llevar is explained by the initial tendency of this verb to express motion events not bounded by an endpoint. From the 16th century onwards, the decline in the micro-construction with traer and the rise in the micro-construction with llevar results from the consolidation of the deictic meaning of the verb pair. This research was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Universities grant for university teacher training number FPU19/01505.

This paper describes the historical evolution of the Spanish causative micro-constructions with the motion verbs llevar (‘take’) and traer (‘bring’) (e.g., el miedo llevó al ladrón a cometer un error, ‘the fear caused the thief to make a mistake’). In order to reconstruct the historical development of these micro-constructions between the 13th and 20th centuries, all causative uses of llevar and traer were extracted from the Corpus del Diccionario Histórico. This corpus was annotated for a series of formal and semantic parameters that count as indexes of grammaticalization, and was submitted to a quantitative productivity analysis. The results point to the existence of a subschema formed of verbs of caused accompanied motion, which has semantically specialized in the expression of indirect causation. From a formal point of view, this subschema is characterized by a low level of syntactic incorporation of the causative verb and the infinitive. In addition, it is shown that the productivity of the causative micro-constructions under study is determined by semantic changes experienced by llevar and traer as full lexical verbs during the history of Spanish. The late development of the micro-construction with llevar is explained by the initial tendency of this verb to express motion events not bounded by an endpoint. From the 16th century onwards, the decline in the micro-construction with traer and the rise in the micro-construction with llevar results from the consolidation of the deictic meaning of the verb pair.

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En allemand moderne, les GN dépourvus d’actualisateur et soumis à l’indice de singulier (type [ØN]sg) encodent une visée non discrète et non définie. En ancien-haut-allemand, le marquage des catégories nominales est en cours d’élaboration, et l’interprétation d’un GN réduit à sa base (soumis à l’indice de singulier) émerge du contexte d’emploi. Dans l’exposé qui suit, on présentera les différentes interprétations sémantiques possibles pour la forme de GN [ØN]sg, dans le corpus de Otfrid (860), en analysant quels signes coprésents dans l’énoncé guident le récepteur dans son travail interprétatif, en distinguant des contextes actualisants et des contextes désactualisants. Ce faisant, on s’interrogera sur le degré de grammaticalisation de l’opposition /discret/~/non discret/ dans cet état de langue. In modern German, singular noun phrases without any actualizer (type [ØN]sg) encode a non-discrete and undefined aim. In old high German, the marking of nominal categories is the object of current development, and the interpretation of a noun phrase reduced to its basis emerges from the context in which it is used. In the following paper, we will present the different possible semantic interpretations for those noun phrases in Otfrid's corpus (860), by analyzing which type of signs, among those that are co-present within the utterance, act as guides to the interpretative work of the receiver, through a distinction between actualizing and desactualizing contexts. In so doing, we will question the degree of grammaticalization of the opposition /discrete/~/non-discrete/ in this state of language.

This paper seeks to address the relation between semantics, pragmatics and the productivity of a low level lexico-grammatical construction, Have the N (body part/attitude) to ↔metapragmatic comment. The question posed is how semantics affects productivity, in the generative sense of extensibility of a construction (a form meaning pairing). The method identifies the specificity and variations of the Have the N (body part/attitude) to ↔metapragmatic comment construction within the pragmeme of politeness using the COHA. Hereafter, we consider how to measure the extensibility within the onomasiological frame based on the available pool of forms expressing an attitude/emotion, i.e., the coverage or attractivity of the Have the N to construction. The paper discusses the findings, namely, how to overcome methodological issues relating to a qualitative rather than quantitative approach to the constructional architecture and the relative productivity of constructions. The experimental small scale corpus study of Have the N to in the COHA suggests that a global view of constructional architecture at multiple levels should be pertinent to identifying the extensibility potential of the construction.

This dissertation investigates the grammaticalization of posture verbs in Dutch and German. Dutch posture verbs have been used as progressive markers since the Middle Dutch period. In the modern language, the verbs take a complement verb introduced by an infinitive marker te, whereas in Middle Dutch, they are linked with another verb by the coordinating conjunction ende, resulting in a structure comparable to verbal coordination. This Middle Dutch progressive construction with posture verbs has a parallel in Modern German, namely a pseudo-coordinate construction with posture verbs. The Modern German construction is thought to be in the early stages of grammaticalization, in the sense that it occasionally hints at temporal aspect.Through a quantitative investigation of data extracted from corpora, this study concludes that the two Dutch posture-verb constructions are independent of each other. Therefore, the historical development of the construction can be described as the replacement of the older pseudo-coordinate construction by the new construction, which is functionally superior. The present-day German construction, on the other hand, is generally biclausal and cannot be characterized as a grammaticalized progressive construction. The comparison of the Dutch pseudo-coordinate construction with the German coordinate construction provides insight into the continuum between coordination and pseudo-coordination.

This dissertation investigates the grammaticalization of posture verbs in Dutch and German. Dutch posture verbs have been used as progressive markers since the Middle Dutch period. In the modern language, the verbs take a complement verb introduced by an infinitive marker te, whereas in Middle Dutch, they are linked with another verb by the coordinating conjunction ende, resulting in a structure comparable to verbal coordination. This Middle Dutch progressive construction with posture verbs has a parallel in Modern German, namely a pseudo-coordinate construction with posture verbs. The Modern German construction is thought to be in the early stages of grammaticalization, in the sense that it occasionally hints at temporal aspect.Through a quantitative investigation of data extracted from corpora, this study concludes that the two Dutch posture-verb constructions are independent of each other. Therefore, the historical development of the construction can be described as the replacement of the older pseudo-coordinate construction by the new construction, which is functionally superior. The present-day German construction, on the other hand, is generally biclausal and cannot be characterized as a grammaticalized progressive construction. The comparison of the Dutch pseudo-coordinate construction with the German coordinate construction provides insight into the continuum between coordination and pseudo-coordination.

In this paper I compare Old High German and the Germanic dialect Cimbrian, two languages which share the availability of free inversion in co-occurrence with an expletive-like element tho and da ‘there’, and I show that they share striking similarities which follow from their pro-drop nature. Tho is typically analysed as a narrative/discourse-continuative marker (Axel 2007, Fuß & Hinterhölzl 2019) appearing in CP or in TP – an account which does not make sense though of the fact that its distribution is restricted to certain verb types (typically unaccusatives, verbs of saying) and constructions (such as passives). In this paper I reconsider the possibility that tho and free inversion are to be connected to the availability of pro-drop in Old High German (cf. Haeberli 2001 for this idea for Old English) and I show that if we apply a Topic-matching analysis for the licensing of null subjects (Frascarelli 2007, 2018) to the Old High German data we are able to solve the problems of Haeberli’s account discussed in Axel (2007). These problems all follow from the assumption that tho lexicalises a there-type expletive appearing in Spec,TP which goes against the evidence for tho. In my alternative account I show that in Old High German free inversion involves the presence of an overt or silent expletive tho, a locative argument selected by the lexical verb which can be promoted to an expletive of the TopicP position in the left periphery in sentences in which the DP subject has not moved out of the VP (cf. Tortora 2001 on free inversion in Italian) and whose function is to satisfy the EPP feature associated with the Topic-criterion needed for the licensing of pro in Spec,TP (Frascarelli 2007, 2018). The availability of free inversion was lost in the history of German due to the loss of pro-drop but it is still available in the Cimbrian dialect spoken in the village of Luserna. In Cimbrian free inversion obligatory involves overt da, a CP expletive, enclitic to the finite verb or the complementiser and whose function is purely formal, i.e. licensing pro in TP, as proposed by Bidese & Tomaselli (2018). I will suggest that the two elements are connected and that Cimbrian da is not an innovation but results from a grammaticalisation process of tho according to which the locative expletive develops from a maximal category with discourse properties (tho) into a head (da) with functional/grammatical status (van Gelderen’s 2010 Head Preference Principle)., Journal of Historical Syntax, Vol. 7 No. 1 (2023): Free inversion in Old High German and Cimbrian

Статья составляет часть программы исследований японских коннекторов. В функциональном плане к числу коннекторов относятся единицы различной морфологической природы, что позволяет поставить вопрос о причислении к ним локативных выражений, в данной статье представленных именами с локативным значением. На основе корпусных данных описывается поведение этих слов в позиции вершины обстоятельств места с точки зрения возникающих в этих контекстах дискурсивных смыслах. В данной группе выделяется три уровня грамматикализации (понимаемой в прагматическом ключе). Первый включает единицы с чётким коннективным значением, приобретающие также и формальные признаки парадигмы вариабельности, свойственные японским коннекторами. К переходной группе, развивающей черты коннекторов, но сохраняющей доминирующее локативное значение, относятся в числе прочих лексические расщепления, как moto и shita. Наконец, третья группа не получает дискурсивных функций и не может маркировать логическую связь между единицами дискурса. Ключевое значение в таком развитии играет семантика единиц, а именно её восприимчивость к метафоризации – прежде всего в реинтерпретации сем «близости» и «обращённости друг к другу»., The present paper forms a part in a series of studies aiming at building a detailed taxonomy of Japanese connectives. A functional perspective induces a thorough overhaul of all available means of marking logical relations in discourse, among which a few still remain little attended to, such as locative expressions. Corpus data are used to ascertain whether this set of expressive means (defined loosely as adjunct heads but covering also possible transforms) do indeed act as discourse markers in their own right. The conclusion is twofold. Apparently a part of the group in the process of grammaticalization, acquiring both the formal features of Japanese connectives (patterned variability) and an abstract development in their meaning. Another have actually split into a non-spatial connective and a purely locative operator (see SHITA and MOTO). A third group never went beyond exclusively spatial meaning. Conditions of this variety are discussed, primarily metaphor-ridden semes of ‘proximity’ and ‘co-directedness’., Russian Linguistic Bulletin, Выпуск 1 (37) 2023

The present paper provides a methodological case study on how underlying incipient grammar change might be discerned even when frequencies of the incoming variant are apparently marginal and stable. Analysing the spread of tonic possessive pronouns in complements of locative adverbial constructions in European Spanish from a probabilistic perspective, more than 11,000 locative constructions from 1900 to 2004 were compiled, and probabilistic grammar change was operationalised as an interactive function between language-internal predictors and real time. The results reveal that numerous intralinguistic factors have been and are active in constraining the variation, with the innovation spreading significantly in spite of apparent stability in frequency. Crucially, the findings demonstrate that, even in a relatively standardised written language where the innovation has a considerably low frequency, the innovation grammaticalises along the same pathway as in colloquial vernaculars where the incoming variant is employed much more frequently.

Grammaticalization is the process by which a lexical item acquires a more functional role over time, such as when a noun comes to be used as a preposition. Grammaticalization is often described as unidirectional, that is, change from functional items to lexical items is far less common (Hopper & Traugott, 2003; Norde, 2009). Where does this unidirectionality come from? This experiment is designed to shed light on whether people show a unidirectional bias when engaging in semantic extension. We focus on the widespread phenomenon of using body part nouns as spatial prepositions (Heine & Kuteva, 2002). We pair participants up to have them perform semantic extension in a communication game, similar to the design used by Bowerman and Smith (2022). First, participants are trained on an artificial vocabulary of either all body parts or all prepositions, in a between-subjects design. Next, in the communication phase, partners take turns as the director or matcher. The director must choose a word from the set they were trained on to help the matcher identify the correct meaning from an array of meanings. After an initial phase where participants communicate about the concepts they were trained on, participants are required to extend those established terms to concepts from the other category (e.g., prepositions, if they were trained on words for body parts). In line with unidirectionality, we expect higher communicative success, greater consistency, and more predictable responses when participants are trained on body parts and asked to extend those terms to communicate about prepositions, compared to when they are trained on prepositions and asked to communicate about body parts.

Homophony avoidance is often cited as a motivation for certain patterns in language change. Throughout the history of Dutch, several instances of morphophonological change have been claimed to have occurred or been inhibited to avoid homophony between present and past tense (Van Bree 1987; Van Loon 2014). For example, the schwa apocope in Early Modern Dutch that affected nearly all Dutch words did not take place in weak preterites (hoopte PST-3SG ‘hope’), which would render them indistinguishable from the present (hoopt PRS-3SG). It did take place however in irregular preterites (kocht < kochte PST-3SG ‘buy’) which remained distinguishable from their present counterparts (koop PRS-3SG) without schwa. Yet, how plausible is this homophony avoidance explanation? Do language users actually take this into account? While the topic is not uncontroversial (King 1967, Lass 1987; 1997a; 1997b: 355-361, Sampson 2013), initial experimental research indeed suggests homophony avoidance to be a cognitively plausible explanation for certain patterns in language change (Kaplan 2011; Kaplan & Muratani 2015; Yin & White 2018). In this paper, we seek further experimental substantiation of homophony avoidance as a cognitive factor in language change. We specifically test whether language users avoid homophony between present and past tense. In a Wug-test, we focus on Dutch non-verbs ending in a dental which, when used in the preterite plural, become homophonous with the present plural (compare vatten PST-3PL to vatten PRS-3PL ‘understand’). Language users can avoid this homophony by switching to a perfect (ze hebben gevat PERF-3PL) which has become semantically interchangeable with the preterite in many contexts in present day Dutch. Participants (n=255) were presented with a forced-choice-task requiring them to choose between the perfect or preterite of non-verbs to fill a blank in a stimulus sentence. The non-verbs either showed a double dental, causing the preterite plural to be both homophonous and homonymous with the present plural (compare vatten PST-3PL to vatten PST-3PL), a single dental, causing the preterite plural to be homophonous, but not homonymous with the present plural (compare duldden PST-3PL to dulden PST-3PL ‘tolerate’) or no dental, causing no homophony. Two between-subject conditions were created: one with only singular verbs and one with only plural verbs. Half of stimuli sentences in each condition contained the explicit past tense marker gisteren ‘yesterday’, while the other half did not. We hypothesized that the presence of such marker would diminish the ambiguity in the sentence by rendering the homophony less problematic. Results show that avoidance of the preterite is indeed highest for verbs with a double dental. This effect is largest for plural verbs without explicit adverbial past tense marker, followed by plural verbs with explicit marker. For singular verbs the effect was not significant. This suggests that language users indeed try to avoid homophony. More generally, this paper contributes to a better understanding of the role of cognition in community wide processes of language change. References Kaplan, Abby. 2011. How much homophony is normal? Journal of Linguistics 47(3). 631–671. Kaplan, Abby & Yuka Muratani. 2015. Categorical and gradient homophony avoidance: Evidence from Japanese. Laboratory Phonology 6(2). 167–195. King, Robert D. 1967. Functional load and sound change. Language 43(4). 831-852 Lass, Roger. 1987. The shape of English. Londen: Dent. Lass, Roger. 1997a. Arse longa, vita brevis: last words on ‘harmful homophony’. Studia Anglica Posnaniensia 32. 21-31. Lass, Roger. 1997b. Historical linguistics and language change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Sampson, Geoffrey. 2013. A counterexample to homophony avoidance. Diachronica 30(4). 579-591. Van Bree, Cor. 1987. Historische grammatica van het Nederlands. Dordrecht: Foris. Van Loon, Jozef. 2014. Historische fonologie van het Nederlands. Schoten: Universitas. Yin, Sora Heng & James White 2018. Neutralization and homophony avoidancein phonological learning. Cognition 179. 89–101.

The forms of the Ossetic copula, which diverge significantly between the two principal dialects Di gor and Iron, have all been derived from Proto-Iranian sources, but many details of their develop ment remain uncertain. In the singular, a pronominal stem, probably *ta-, was grammaticalized as a copula and extended to 1sg d-æn and 2sg d-æ, the remaining portions of which go back to PIr. 1sg *ahmi, 2sg *ahi. Other pronouns were then grammaticalized in 3sg Iron u and Digor æj, whereas Di gor je(s), Iron i(s) reflects PIr. 3sg *asti. In the plural, Digor 1pl an, 2pl atæ continue PIr. subjunctive *ah-a- or present indicative forms remodeled on the stem *ah-; while Iron ystæm, ystut, ysty are in origin present forms of PIr. *staH- ‘stand’.

Iraqw has a number of preverbal elements that are compounded to the verb and some of these have functions similar to an applicative.These compounds are not fully productive and are prone to lexicalisations.One of them, hara, doubles as a preposition. The grammaticalisation of a number of these preverbal elements allows us to study the process of development from preposition (and other independent elements) to verbal applicative marker.

The present study investigates the diachronic development of the bipartite negative construction hǎa…mây in Thai, aiming to account for its syntactic and semantic peculiarity. Based on the historical data from the Sukhothai period to Modern Thai, I suggest that the development of hǎa…mây construction relates to the grammaticalization of the expression hǎa NP míɁ dây ‘fail to find something’. From around the mid-14th century, hǎa NP míɁ dây came to gain a new function as an irregular negative existential construction under the pressure of the recession of the anterior negative existential form bɔ̀ɔ mii ‘not have, not exist’. This function is especially prominent in the 17th century during which the old negator bɔ̀ɔ shows a continuous decrease in the frequency of use and the newer negator mây was not widely used. When the newer negative existential form mây mii emerged around the early 18th century and eventually prevailed over hǎa NP míɁ dây in the 19th and 20th centuries, hǎa NP míɁ dây gradually lost its function as a negative existential form but survived its evolution into a negative adverbial construction through a syntagmatic change (from hǎa NP to hǎa VP), accompanied by a phonetic reduction (from hǎa…míɁ dây to hǎa…mây ) and a semantic reinterpretation(from ‘fail to find something or not exist, not have’ to ‘not VP as one thought’).

El objeto de este estudio es profundizar en el origen y en la trayectoria discursiva del valor encuadrado en la modalidad deóntica que refleja querer + infinitivo. Aunque se documente por primera vez en textos del siglo XIII, su empleo tardío –en comparación con otros significados modales y temporales que adquirió– parece beber de fuentes latinas en las que se empleaba NOLI/NOLITE con sentido moralizante. Así pues, con la ayuda que proporciona la búsqueda en el CORDE, intentaremos dilucidar (i) cuál es su camino evolutivo y (ii) qué contextos discursivos propician el cambio semántico motivado por la interferencia del modelo latino. La hipótesis que intentaremos demostrar es que la entrada del nuevo valor deóntico, emanado de la construcción medieval querer + infinitivo se debe al mecanismo del calco semántico en los autores latinizantes. Por consiguiente, cabe suponer que la gramaticalización por contacto inducido de la construcción non quieras/non querades + infinitivo opera sobre la idea originaria que emana de la construcción querer + infinitivo ‘intención’, en la que la fuerte disposición del sujeto agentivo a ejecutar la actividad dinámica acapara, en ojos del emisor, el contenido performativo, de modo que decide intervenir apelando a la voluntad del sujeto agentivo para que no realice la acción que se había propuesto.

The present article contains the results of study on unidirectionality of grammaticalization which is understood as a shift from lexical to grammatical signs. The research aims to find out and describe present approaches to the unidirectionality idea and identify the current tendency in attitudes towards this property of grammaticalization. The research methodology includes a content analysis of approaches to the unidirectionality issue, their generalization and analysis of some units questioning the unidirectionality of grammaticalization. The relevance of grammaticalization studies is due to a growing interest of Russian and foreign linguists in grammatical changes, current differences in identifying the main properties of such change as grammaticalization and terminological variation. The theoretical framework of this study is based on the research by T. Givn, Ch. Lehmann, T. Lindstrm, E. Traugott, B. Heine and other famous linguists working in the field of grammaticalization. It is noted that the issue of unidirectionality of grammaticalization is almost ignored in Russian linguistics where unidirectionality is often seen as an integral property of this process. The study results have shown the tendency to accepting the unidirectionality idea and a controversial nature of some examples used to overturn this idea. Such examples include English infinitival to , the verb to dare and the suffix -ish . It has been established that the terms degrammaticalization and lexicalization used to refer to processes opposite to grammaticalization can be considered reasonable depending on their understanding and the meaning of the term grammaticalization. This study is a part of a more extensive research aimed to describe and analyze the mechanisms of grammaticalization in Germanic languages.

This article develops foundations for a new typology of nominal expressions. Despite the significant diversity attested in languages around the world, a view traditionally and sometimes still found holds that languages either have ‘classic’, rigidly structured noun phrases (NPs) or lack them. A simple dichotomy, however, does not adequately represent the significant language-internal and crosslinguistic diversity of forms and functions of nominal expressions. While many linguists may not in fact think in such binary terms, a comprehensive typology is still wanting. This article offers foundations towards such a typology, with a particular emphasis on language-internal diversity. This diversity within languages has received little attention in previous studies, even while it reveals much about the actual complexity in the nominal domain. Besides surveying structural types and their motivating factors across as well as within languages from around the world, this article approaches nominal expressions also from a variety of other perspectives to enrich our understanding of them. This includes approaching nominal expressions from the perspective of word class systems as well as diachronically. We round off the article by looking at the impact of orality-literacy dimensions and communicative modes.

Tariana, a North Arawak language from northwest Amazonia, has a complex system of serial verbs and a certain amount of verb compounding. Serial verbs in Tariana provide important evidence in favour of the existence of cross-linguistically valid defining properties of serial verbs. Verb serialisation and verb compounding are independent grammatical processes, each with a grammaticalisation path of its own, and with distinct functions. Their coexistence in one language is consistent with the principle of iconic motivation: the closer the elements are in surface structure, the more they are grammaticalised or lexicalised.

Recent research has pointed out that certain grammaticalization phenomena originate in substandard varieties and/or colloquial speech styles. However, the potential of insights to be gained from relating grammaticalization and sociolinguistics still remains largely unexplored. The present paper is an attempt at such an approach, discussing grammaticalization processes in contemporary German youth language (Jugendsprache). On a word formation level, the paper deals with nominal and verbal formatives, denominal conversions, and the use of verb stems as lexical morphemes. Syntactic phenomena include the development of the non-inflected negative null and a new intensifier word order pattern. After highlighting the relevant grammaticalization mechanisms for each of these patterns, the paper discusses the relation between slang creation and grammaticalization, emphasizing the role of expressivity as a discourse-pragmatic motivation for linguistic innovations. Finally, the paper draws attention to connections between youth specific language varieties and language change, and tries to account for the fact that some grammaticalization processes in substandard varieties never reach their potential end point.

No es por X pero Y is a Spanish structure that can appear combined with an adversative sentence and anticipates a possible misinterpretation by the listener. It acts as a semi-fixed construction. It respects the communicative intention of the speaker and mitigates the negative effects that what is said can have on his/her social image. At the same time, when no es por nada appears as an independent form in a peripheral position or as a reactive turn, it functions as an assertion enhancer with sentence mobility. This function as a discourse operator reveals a grammaticalization process of cooptation that is not yet completed as it still coexists with the free construction.

The present study explores structural and functional properties of two sets of evidential adverbials in English, Polish and Lithuanian by addressing their scope, position, evidential status, functional extension, grammaticalization and distribution in different types of discourse. The first set includes units originally related to the meaning ‘visible to the eye’: evidently, ewidentnie, oczywiście and akivaizdžiai; the second set covers units connected with the original meaning of distinctness and transparency: clearly, wyraźnie and aiskiai. The findings suggest that formal and functional cross-linguistic similarities are shared mostly by clearly, wyraźnie and aiskiai, which function as manner adverbials or inferential evidentials. By contrast, significant differences mirroring the functional extension of the adverbials and their degree of grammaticalization have been displayed by evidently, oczywiście, ewidentnie and akivaizdžiai. Unlike the English and Polish adverbials, the Lithuanian akivaizdžiai tends to occur as a manner adverbial or show ambiguous interpretation between the manner and evidential use, which reflects its least grammaticalized status. However, the Polish oczywiście has displayed a variety of interpersonal functions that show a complete bleaching of its evidential use, supported by the high frequency, positional mobility, interactional contexts of use of the marker, incompatibility with perceptual evidence and discourse marker status.