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The development of iterative verbal periphrases in Romance.
- Source :
-
Linguistics . Mar2016, Vol. 54 Issue 2, p235-272. 38p. - Publication Year :
- 2016
-
Abstract
- This paper compares the diachronic development of tornar( e)+ a+infinitive (henceforth abbreviated RETURN+INF) constructions in Spanish, Catalan, and Italian, a topic that especially for Catalan and Italian has not received much attention. I develop and explore the hypothesis that due to their lexical origin, iterative constructions develop from a restitutive to a repetitive function. A diachronic analysis of a corpus of RETURN+INF tokens from the three languages suggests that the grammaticalization of RETURN+INF constructions can be measured in terms of (a) actionality and (b) restructuring as mirrored in the possibility of clitic climbing. A statistical analysis using generalized linear mixed-effects regression modeling demonstrates an interplay between restructuring and the actionality of the predicates in the development of RETURN+INF constructions: the grammaticalization process affects state, achievement, and accomplishment predicates before activity predicates because activity predicates exclude a restitutive meaning. The paper thus identifies a grammaticalization path for RETURN+INF constructions common to three Romance languages that suggests a link between typological and diachronic observations. At the same time, it identifies differences in the diachronic development of these periphrases between the Ibero-Romance languages and Italian. In addition, it proposes a statistical means of assessing quantitative differences in the degree to which a verbal periphrasis is grammaticalized across related languages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 00243949
- Volume :
- 54
- Issue :
- 2
- Database :
- Academic Search Index
- Journal :
- Linguistics
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 113392862
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1515/ling-2016-0001