The Rise of the To-Infinitive

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1 University Press Scholarship Online You are looking at 1-9 of 9 items for: keywords : degrammaticalization The Rise of the To-Infinitive Bettelou Los Published in print: 2005 Published Online: September 2007 ISBN: eisbn: Item type: book acprof:oso/ This book describes the historical emergence and spread of the toinfinitive in English. It shows that to + infinitive emerged from a reanalysis of the preposition to plus a deverbal nominalization, which spread first to purpose clauses, then to other non-finite environments. The book challenges the traditional reasoning that infinitives must have been nouns in Old English because they inflected for dative case and can follow prepositions. In fact, as early as Old English, the to-infinitive was established in most of the environments in which it is found today, and its syntactic behaviour clearly shows that it is already a clause rather than a phrase at this early date. Its spread was largely due to competition with finite subjunctive that-clauses, which it gradually replaced. Later chapters consider Middle English developments. The book provides a measured evaluation of the evidence that the infinitive marker to undergoes a period of degrammaticalization. It concludes that the extent to which to gains syntactic freedom in Middle English is due to the fact that speakers began to equate it with the modal verbs, and therefore to treat it syntactically as a modal verb. The rise of to-infinitival Exceptional Case-Marking constructions is a Middle English innovation, triggered by changes in information structure that were in turn caused by the loss of verb-second. Degrammaticalization Item type: book acprof:oso/ This is a book about degrammaticalization, a rare type of linguistic change whereby grams become less grammatical, typical examples Page 1 of 5

2 being shifts from affix to clitic, or from function word to lexical item. It discusses the alleged unidirectionality of semantic and morphosyntactic change, showing that change is in fact reversible on all levels. It also aims to classify degrammaticalization by examining primitive changes on several levels: semantics, pragmatics, morphology, syntax, and phonology. It is argued that there exist three separate types of degrammaticalization: degrammation, whereby a function word develops into a lexical item; deinflectionalization, whereby an inflectional affix becomes either derivational or enclitic, while gaining additional functions; and debonding, whereby a bound morpheme becomes a free morpheme, often without change on the semantic-functional level. Introduction acprof:oso/ This introductory chapter explores the concepts of grammaticalization, lexicalization, and degrammaticalization, and areas of overlap between them. Both grammaticalization and degrammaticalization are defined as composite changes, comprising primitive changes at several linguistic levels. It discusses some controversial types of grammaticalization, pragmaticalization, and clause combining, as well as theoretical issues such as the question of whether grammaticalization, lexicalization, and degrammaticalization are autonomous processes, whether grammaticalization studies is a theory, and the role of linguistic reconstruction. It also contains an in-depth case study of the grammaticalization of the Romance MENTE-suffix. Degrammation acprof:oso/ This chapter is the first of three chapters of case studies, and describes the type of degrammaticalization termed degrammation. Degrammation is defined as a composite change whereby a function word in a specific Page 2 of 5

3 linguistic context is reanalysed as a member of a major word class, acquiring the morphosyntactic properties which are typical of that word class, and gaining in semantic substance. Examples include modal verbs becoming lexical verbs (both formally and semantically), and pronouns becoming nouns. Conclusions acprof:oso/ This chapter summarizes the analyses of the case studies in the preceding three chapters, and is also an evaluation of Lehmann's parameters as a taxonomic tool. It discusses the role of analogy and reanalysis in degrammaticalization, and possible motivations for degrammaticalization. It argues that degrammaticalization may be considered a process in some cases (notably in degrammation), but that in other cases it is the result of major (morpho)syntactic restructurings in a language. Finally, the chapter provides a brief outlook for further research. Changes within Pennsylvania German Grammar as Enactments of Anabaptist World View KATE BURRIDGE in Ethnosyntax: Explorations in Grammar and Culture Published in print: 2004 Published Online: ISBN: eisbn: acprof:oso/ This chapter examines two recent developments in Pennsylvania German grammar that go against usual pathways of grammatical change and appear to be driven by the cultural and religious preoccupations of the speakers. For one, Pennsylvania German appears to offer a bona fide example of degrammaticalization, whereby a lexical verb wotte to wish has re-evolved out of a grammaticalized modal verb. In addition, it shows the unusual development of a lexical verb zehle to count into a marker of future. Page 3 of 5

4 Grammaticalization as optimization Paul Kiparsky in Grammatical Change: Origins, Nature, Outcomes Published in print: 2011 Published Online: January 2012 ISBN: eisbn: Page 4 of 5 acprof:oso/ This chapter takes the issue of grammaticalization back to its theoretical foundation. It lays out the argument for a reversion to the Neogrammarian position by examining in detail the types of change that have come to be known as degrammaticalization. These involve change of a functional element to something less functional, or less restricted in its distribution, such as the deflexion of the English and Swedish genitive suffixes to become phrasal affixes or clitics. Degrammaticalization poses a challenge for those who insist that change linking lexical to functional status is unidirectional. However, it is argued that both grammaticalization and degrammaticalization are subtypes of analogical change. It is shown that known examples of degrammaticalization involve analogy of the familiar type: paradigm leveling or proportional analogy. Grammaticalization is analogy of a sort closely bound up with the generative conception of language: analogy with exemplars provided by universal grammar. Grammaticalization may thus introduce changes with no model in the surface data of the preceding generation (for example, a modal auxiliary) because this model is provided by UG. Grammatical Constructionalization Elizabeth Closs Traugott and Graeme Trousdale in Constructionalization and Constructional Changes Published in print: 2013 Published Online: January 2014 ISBN: eisbn: acprof:oso/ This chapter builds on earlier work in grammaticalization to show how expansion and reduction are intertwined in the development of grammatical constructions. The importance of distinguishing preand post-constructionalization changes is emphasized. Grammatical constructionalization is shown to include but not be the same as grammaticalization as it has traditionally been studied, because the changes can occur not only at the level of specific items, such as BE going to, but also at the level of more abstract schemas, such as information structure constructions. The case study is the development

5 of pseudo-clefts, especially those of the type All (that) I did was go to a movie, from biclausal contrastive constructions to monoclausal ones. Proto-Semitic and Proto-Arabic origins of grammatical ši David Wilmsen in Arabic Indefinites, Interrogatives, and Negators: A Linguistic History of Western Dialects Published in print: 2014 Published Online: December 2014 ISBN: eisbn: acprof:oso/ Grammatical šī in Arabic shares more surface similarities and functional affinities with Proto-Semitic 3rd person pronouns and other Semitic function words than it does with the Arabic word for thing, itself probably deriving later from an indefinite determiner šī. Of the few genuine cases of degrammaticalization, the best-supported is the movement from indefinite determiners to content words. The other functionalities of the existential particle šī arose from a Proto-Semitic demonstrative or presentative, not along a unidirectional cline but through a potentially overlapping series of lateral shifts, changes, neither more nor less grammatical, representing movement on the cline but not up or down it. The development of negative -š in Arabic conforms to Croft s negative-indefinite cycle, not Jespersen s. Page 5 of 5