Belgium (30,528 km 2 = 1/317 of China)!

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1 4th International Cognitive Semantics Conference, Hunan University, March, 2013 Syntactic reinterpretation, actualisation and (potential) grammaticalisation! Maarten Lemmens! cognitextes.revues.org Today's topic (new research topic)! starts very locally (my children's variety of Belgian Dutch)! moves to a much larger, possibly recurrent pattern of language change concerning evaluative adjectives! ends with some fundamental questions about grammaticalisation and its relation to Construction Grammar.! 2 Belgium (30,528 km 2 = 1/317 of China)! home (Flanders, Belgium) Dutch-speaking ("Flemish") work (Lille, France) French-speaking Germanspeaking 3 4 Outline! 1. Use of the French loan ça va ('it goes') in Belgian Dutch # (acknowledgements to my children and my wife)! 2. Analysis in terms of reinterpretation & actualisation! 3. Parallels with OK! 4. Further grammaticalisation?! 5. Conclusions: grammaticalisation & CxG! The ça va phenomenon#!!!!! Lemmens (2012; 2013)! Belgian Dutch (="Flemish") : informal conversations often use French phrase ça va ('it goes') in answer to the question "How are things/how are you?"! Example (pers. att.):! A: Hoe gaat het?!!how goes it?! B: ça va, en met u?!!çava, and with you?! A: çavakkes.!!!çava.dim.pl! 5 6 1

2 This conversational use of ça va is a perfect calque of the French use:! Comment ça va?!!how it goes?! ça va Ø / bien / mal.!it goes Ø / well / badly!!cf. English: How's it going? It's going (fine).! Syntactically & semantically transparent in French:! ça va!! ça ira!! ça allait!!it go.pres.3sg it go.fut.3sg it go.past.3sg! adverb clarifies the HOW; without adjective (Ø) = "not good not bad, ok, reasonable"! 7 In Belgian Dutch ("Flemish"), the phrase is fully lexicalised loanword, as a monomorphemic invariable unit, i.e.:! no tense inflection for va! no inversion in X-VB-SUBJ construction! no adverb possible:! *ça va goed / slecht!!ça va well / badly! spelling variation (SMS-influence):! ça va, çava, cava, cv, sava (Note: French ç = [s])! 8 Indications of wide-spread use! commonly used in Flemish reality tv and soap-series (on national tv, e.g. 25x in one episode); not corrected in subtitling (used to standardize regional variation)! çavakes (çava.dim): taken up in list of Flemish words for Dutch students at the KU Leuven (translation: alles ok 'all ok')! used by foreign exchange student after 2 weeks! Different contexts of use :! 1. conversational çava! 2. predicate çava! 3. predicative adjective! 4. attributive adjective! 5. adverbial uses! Conversational çava! Cf. above: used as discourse particle in answer to question Hoe gaat het? 'How are you?'! Variant form:! diminuative çavakes / çavatjes (affective value)! cf. mercikes / ( mercietjes)!thank-you.dim.pl!! salukes / (saluutjes)!bye.dim.pl!! hallokes / (hallootjes)!hi.dim.pl! Predicate çava! Used as (some kind of) predicate! Zijn Engels is niet zo goed. Voor de gewone dingen, ça va nog wel, maar niet om meer gecompliceerde dingen uit te leggen. (pers.att., HW)!!his English is not so good. For the simple things çava still, but not to explain more complicated things! En we gaan ook absoluut niet ver weg, dus ça va nog wel. (www)!!and we absolutely don't go far (away), so ça va still! 12 2

3 3. ça va as predicative adjective! X is çava ; I find X çava! Die pokémon is nog wel ça va (www)!!that pokémon is still çava! ik vind het toch ça va nog zo (www)!!i find it nevertheless çava still like that! Waarom neemt Malta toch altijd zulke trage, sprookjesliedjes? -- Bwoh, twas toch ça va? (www)!!why does Malta always take such slow fairytalesongs? well, it was still çava?! ça va as predicative adjective! With intensifiers:! de kotbazen zijn heel erg ça va (www)!!the landlords are very much çava! voor de rest is die echt ça va! (www)!!for the rest this one is really çava! dik çavatjes zou ik zo zeggen (www)!!fat çava.dim.pl I would say! ça va as attributive ADJ! DET ça va NOUN:! Maar toch een ça va plaat om!!but still a çava (music) record to! Ziet er nog een ça va cd'ke uit!!looks like a çava CD.DIM! zij speelden een ca va match!!they played a çava game! Ik heb nu enkele jobs op het oog, uiteindelijk heb ik een ça va diploma en zal ik wel ergens binnenkort beter werk vinden (www)!!i have my eye on some jobs right now; after all, I do have a çava degree and will soon find a beter job! mensen moeten mij zien als een geniale blogger. Niet als een ça va blogger. (www)!!people have to see me as a genious blogger not as a çava blogger! Once adjectival use is possible, adverbial use becomes possible as well (no formal difference in Dutch between ADJ & ADV):! [je kan] toch ça va meedraaien. (www)!!you can nevertheless play along çava! Dit is ça va gedaan (TV Eén, 22/02/2012)!!this is çava done (=well done)! Ik slaap çava nog wel (pers. att , SL)!!I sleep çava despite all! Met [name] gaat het çava!!with [name] it goes çava! 17 Adverbial pre-adjectival modifier :! ik vind alle nieuwe BMW's strontlelijk, de Z8 is mooi, oude M3 ook, en de M6 is nog wel sava mooi, X5 is degoutant, X3 nog ranziger (www)!!i find all new BMW shit-ugly, the Z8 is pretty, old M3 too, and the M6 is still çava pretty, X5 is disgusting, X3 even more revolting! Da s toch ça va logisch (pers. att, JW L, )!!This is PRT çava logical! nee nee die is echt sava knap (www)!!no no, that one (=girl) is really çava pretty! 18 3

4 Outline! 1. Use of the French loan ça va ('it goes') in Belgian Dutch! 2. Analysis in terms of reinterpretation & actualisation! 3. Parallels with OK (okay, ok)! 4. Further grammaticalisation?! 5. Conclusions & prospects! Analysis! Earlier analysis (Lemmens 2012): process of grammaticalisation in 4 steps:! 1. conversational ça va : answer to question Hoe gaat het? [INT]! 2. predicate ça va : equivalent of het gaat ('it goes'); [Pred]! 3. predicative adjective [ADJ PRED]! 4. attributive adjective [ADJ ATTR]! Revised analysis! Not really grammaticalisation, but syntactic reinterpretation and subsequent actualisation (triggered & driven by analogy; cf. De Smet 2012; Denison 2001), yet may be road into grammaticalisation (cf. below)! Different steps need not be strictly linear ( grammaticalisation); rather similarity network (within and beyond)! Syntactic backinterpretation conversational ça va! Hoe is het? ça va.! ADJ ADV conversational ça va! Hoe gaat het? ça va.! Adjective paradigm pred. diminutive adj.! çavakkes / çavatjes! predicative adjective! N is ça va! attributive adjective! DET ça va N! VP adverb! SUBJ V ça va! predicate ça va! ça va VP! DIM. ADJ.! zachtjes, frisjes,! PRED. ADJ.! goed, fijn,! ATTR. ADJ.! goed, fijn,! Adverb paradigm prenom. adv.! ça va ADJ! Schematically (inspired by De Smet 2012)! Empirical support! difficulty of finding sufficiently reliable corpus evidence:! highly informal register (adolescents)! WebCorp/Twitter: impossible to filter out noise! ça va extremely common on French Belgian sites! spelling often cava and cv: overlaps with common words (sparkling wine, curriculum vitae)! informal inquiry on acceptability judgments (next slide)! 23 Informal acceptability inquiry! 35 KU students (Flemish; yrs);! 2 moments (nov. 2011, nov. 2012); N 1 =18, N 2 =17);! sentences projected on PPT (one after the other), individual written answers "yes"/"no" regarding acceptability in informal Flemish! N 1 : 2 sentences (pred. & attr. use),!!n 2 : 4 sentences (2 adverbial uses, V & ADJ)! 24 4

5 Results! predicative use : 91% (32 on 35)!!the new Coldplay CD is still çava! attributive use : 80% (28 on 35)!!this is a çava song! adverbial use (VP) : 17,6% (3 on 17)!!play along çava! adverbial use (AdjP) : 17,6% (3 on 17)!!this BMW is çava pretty! 25 Interim conclusion! Change from conversational particle to adjective; analogy-driven reinterpretation and actualisation = rise of new constructional possibilities because of reinterpretation! starting from predicative use (locus of analogy), expanding to (1) attributive use and (2) adverbial uses! not grammaticalisation (yet)! 26 Outline! 1. Use of the French loan ça va ('it goes') in Belgian Dutch! 2. Analysis in terms of actualisation & reinterpretation;! 3. Parallels with OK! 4. Further grammaticalisation?! 5. Conclusions! 27 English O.K. (OK, okay)! Evolution of çava similar to that of OK!!!INT > Pred. ADJ > Attr. ADJ! 1. Interjection / Q-tag! A: OK, let's go. / Let's go, ok?! B: OK.! 2. Predicative ADJ / ADV! It is OK; he seems ok; it works ok! 3. Attributive ADJ! an OK N! 28 OK in English! O.E.D.! Empirical support (English):! 1. O.E.D.! 2. Corpus data:! Corpus of Contemporary Am. English! Corpus of Historical Am. English! Google books! O.K.: "chiefly in predicative use or as int."! predicative use:! 1839 The house was O.K. at the last concert! 1839 It's O.K. (all correct) in this quarter! 1840 He pronounced all O.K.! attributive use:! 1869 The O.K. thing to do! 1874 We had an O.K. time till we went to bed!

6 Corpus evidence! Corpora:! - Corpus of Contemporary American English (spoken)! - Corpus of Historical American English (written, , Fiction, Non-fiction, Magazines, Newspapers)! Contrastive analyses:! - NN be OK (e.g., Everything is ok)! - ART OK NN (e.g., an OK person, the OK thing)! 31 COCA! N BE OK ART OK N 1,6 1,4 1,2 1 0,8 0,6 0,4 0, Note:! diff. in frequency:! N be ok : 355 (241 types)! ART ok N: 32 (21 types)! N <be> OK increases;!!art ok N decreases! period under study too late!! => Google books! 32 be OK Corpus of Historical Am. English! NN is ok an OK thing an OK person an OK job ART ok NN (first occurrence much later than NN is OK, but rises on the heels of increase NN is ok N-grams Google books:# an OK/okay N! Typical patterns & collocates! Predicative use of English ok :! it's ok to [V]! that's ok. (anaphorical backreference)! X looks/seems/sounds ok! X works ok (adverbial)!

7 attr. use (COCA): ART [OK ok okay] N! GUY % JOB % TIME % THING 9 6.1% PLACE 6 4.1% MOVIE 4 2.7% PERSON 3 2.0% BOOK 2 1.4% BUSINESS 2 1.4% CAFE 2 1.4% CITY 2 1.4% COLLEGE 2 1.4% KIND 2 1.4% MAN 2 1.4% PIECE 2 1.4% PLAN 2 1.4% SPELLER 2 1.4% TECH 2 1.4% =1 occ % TOTAL % 37 English OK : summing up! Similar evolution to Dutch ça va:! starts out as interjection! reinterpreted as (predicative) adjective, because of constructional analogy! Shall we go? OK (int.) / (That's) OK (adj.)! actualisation: extension to attributive use (an OK N) and adverbial uses (it works ok)!!fairly robust colloctional patterns: people or creative work (book, film; often context of evaluation)! 38 OK (oké) in Dutch! Four usage patterns:! 1. stand-alone conversational use (cf. English):! "yes / I agree"! 2. hedges / correction of formulation (>< English):! "sort of, like " (example on next slide)! 3. predicative evaluative adjective (cf. English):! "X is ok"! 4. attributive evaluative adjective (cf. English)! "a (very) OK N"! 39 Hedges & corrections examples:! dus uh dus ik dacht ik ga oké om kwart voor vijf had ik m'n eten binnen.!!so uhm so I thought I will ok at 4:45 I had eaten! maar dat is ook weer zoiets uh d ja oké redeloos geweld bestaat volgens mij niet.!!but that is also something uhm d yes ok irrational violence doesn't exist according to me! => pragmatic function: confirming one's own choice of formulation; not attested in the English data (COCA, WebCorp)! 40 Hypothesis: similar path of change:! 1. conversational/pragmatic!!! > 2. Pred. ADJ.!!!!> 3. ATTR. ADJ! Empirical support (contemporary Dutch only):! Corpus Gesproken Nederlands (Corpus Spoken Dutch; Neth. D & Belgian D.)! ;! about 5,900 sentences with oké! manual analysis! 41 oké in Dutch! N % INT. or HEDGE % PREDICATIVE % ADVERBIAL % ATTRIBUTIVE % MISCELLANEOUS % INDETERMINATE % Total % 42 7

8 oké in Dutch! okeetjes OK.DIM.PL! One single attributive use:! een oké feestje!!an ok party! Predicative uses: typical pattern with anaphorical backreference (70%)! [x] dat/die is oké (x= mostly clause)!![x] that/this is ok! Also diminuative use possible:! Alles okeetjes :) kwerk nu freelance!!all ok.dim.pl :) I work freelance now! [deze zaal] is wel ok hoor, ik had daar een verloving, was wel okeetjes.!!this (ball)room is fairly ok, you know, I had an engagement (party) there, was ok.dim.pl! OK (okej) in Swedish! widespread as interjection (cf. En. & Du):!!A: Ska vi gå? B: okej!!a: Shall we go? B: ok! widespread as pred. adjective (cf. En. & Du):!!det är (helt) okej!!that is (totally) ok! relatively widespread as attr. adjective!!(>< Eng. / Du.)! 45 OK in Swedish! Empirical evidence: Språkbanken Bloggmix (2012)! 31,152 hits for okej! restrictive search on [ART] okej [N] :! 276 occurrences; 164 types! much more varied set of nouns (cf. next slide)! much more positive! typical construction: helt okej (totally ok)! 46 N pris price % dag day % film film 8 2.9% kväll evening 8 2.9% insats stake, effort 7 2.5% tid time 6 2.2% jobb job 4 1.4% lön salary 4 1.4% sätt way, fashion 4 1.4% start start 4 1.4% telefon telephone 4 1.4% alternativ alternative 3 1.1% år year 3 1.1% bok book 3 1.1% lösning solution 3 1.1% match game 3 1.1% natt night 3 1.1% ord word 3 1.1% resultat result 3 1.1% story story 3 1.1% 47 Similar patterns in other languages! Estonian okei!!int > PRED. ADJ > (ATTR. ADJ)! Spanish mas o menos ('more or less')!!adv > PRED. ADJ > (ATTR. ADJ)! 48 8

9 Outline! 1. Use of the French loan ça va ('it goes') in Belgian Dutch! 2. Analysis in terms of actualisation & reinterpretation! 3. Parallels with OK (okay, ok)! 4. Further grammaticalisation?! 5. Conclusions! ça va vs. oké in Dutch! parallel uses & evolutions :! discourse particle (INT)! adjectival uses (PRED. ADJ > ATTR. ADJ.)! diminuative (only INT & PRED. ADJ)! differences :! çava: use as pre-adjectival modifier (adverbial use); not for oké (*oké fijn 'ok nice')! çava: different context of use! ça va vs. oké in Dutch! Pragmatic/contextual factor: çava typically used against background of negative expectation, e.g.,!!as far as Xs go, this X is still ça va!!despite X, it was still çava!!not the best X ever but still çava!!often used with stance/attitudinal particles toch, nog, wel, etc. ('nevertheless', 'still', 'despite X')! 51 Meliorisation! negative expectation => mediocre becomes good => meliorisation, e.g.! cocktails worde gemaakt door 2 pro's, die kunne da blijkbaar wel çava goe!!cocktails are made by 2 pros, these seem to be çava good! Hoe komt da het ni zo goe was dees jaar? 'Vroeger' waarde gij toch çava goe?!!how come that it wasn't as good this year? You used to be çava good?! 52 Conclusions! ambiguous contexts: çava = "mediocre" or "very" (intensifier)! => beginning grammaticalisation?!!cmp. goed fout 'good wrong' = very wrong! importantly: only in adjectival and adverbial use! so far: only with positive adjectives! çava good / pretty!? çava bad / ugly! 53 Evidence for on-going change for ça va and ok;! Triggered by analogy (reanalysis and actualisation)! çava: meliorisation esp. in attributive use and adjectival modifier (subjectification?)! beginning of (further) grammaticalisation?! 54 9

10 Conclusions! Some desemanticisation (widening of usage) but strictly speaking, evolutions are not instances of grammaticalisation! no phonetic reduction! no increase of dependency! no evolution from lexical to grammatical! However: CxGrammar: everything is a construction, so what then is grammaticalisation?! 55 Reinterpretation : NOT grammaticalisation, but actualisation opens the road to new constructions! Grammaticalisation people:! Bybee (2003:145) defines grammaticalisation as "the creation of new constructions"! Traugott (1988:410): in grammaticalization meanings tend to become increasingly situated in the speaker s subjective belief/ attitude toward the situation! = evolution of evaluative adjectives can be considered as an instance of 56 grammaticalisation.! Conclusions! Further research necessary :! further analysis of corpus data (esp. pragmatic uses)! collocations & Cx patterns! parallels with other evaluative adjectives, also in other languages! In short:! Still quite a bit of work to do, but the first results seem to be ça va / okay / helt okej.! 57 Thank you! Xie xie! Maarten Lemmens! [email protected]! all papers downloadable from:! References! Denison, D. (2001) Gradience and linguistic change In Brinton, L. (ed.) Historical Linguistics Selected papers from the 14 th International Conference on Historical Linguistics Vancouver 9-13 August Amsterdam: John Benjamins.! De Smet, H. (2012) The course of actualization. Language 88, ! Heine, Berndt Grammaticalisation. In Joseph, B. D. & R. Janda (eds.) The handbook of historical linguistics. Oxford, Blackwell, 2003, pp ! Lehmann, Christian (1994). Thoughts on grammaticalisation. München: Lincom Europa.! Lemmens, M. (2012) Dit artikel is nog wel ça va. De grammaticalisatie van ça va in het Belgisch-Nederlands. n/f (Tijdschrift van de Association des Néerlandistes de Belgique francophone et de France, zie Lemmens, M. (2013) "Van (neutraal) tussenwerpsel naar (positief) evaluatief adjectief: ça va en oké in het Nederlands", Internationale Neerlandistiek 51, 4-28! Noël, Dirk. (2007) Diachronic construction grammar and grammaticalisation theory. Functions of Language 14, pp ! Vandekerckhove, Reinhild & Judith Nobels (2010) Code eclecticism: Linguistic variation and code alternation in the chat language of Flemish teenagers. In: Journal of Sociolinguistics, volume 14, pp ! 59 10