Grammatical Agency (original) (raw)

Principles of grammaticalization and linguistic reality

Determinants of Grammatical Variation in English

This paper considers a number of deterministic conceptions that occupy a central position in current thinking about the process of grammaticalization, both in formal and functional theories of grammar. After a general discussion of the way the phenomenon of grammaticalization is dealt with from the point of view of grammar change and language change, and the explanatory value of these two rather different approaches, the paper turns to an examination of determinants considered to playa role in grammaticalization, i.e. the principle of unidirectionality, the idea of conceptual chains (grammaticalization as a semantically driven process), of grammaticalization as a mechanism or cause in itself, and the so-called parameters of grammaticalization. These assumptions will be critically examined with the hclp of two case studies, i.e. the grammaticalization of the infinitival marker to and of semimodal have to in the history of English. In addition, other factors will be lookcd at of an essentially synchronic nature, which may interact in this diachronic process, such as iconic factors and the synchronic state of the grammar/language. Both of these play an important part in the way grammaticalization proceeds. The paper concludes that certain tendencies can indeed be discerned in grammaticalization, but that the process is first and foremost steered by the shape of the synchronic language system. The conclusion also offers some thoughts on how the synchronic factors that steer grammaticalization may yet set off a longterm development through the impiicational properties of the structure that is grammaticalizing.

UCL Working Papers in Linguistics 10 (1998) Degree expressions and the autonomy of syntax *

2013

This paper argues for the autonomy of syntax. So-called degree expression come in two sorts: some are heads selecting an AP, others are adjoined to any suitable host. These two classes yield to a unitary semantics, which explains their largely complementary distribution. Hence, they can only be distinguished in syntactic terms, in particular c-selection. A further argument for an autonomous syntax comes from cases in which degree expressions are not in complementary distribution. It is demonstrated that the syntactic relation of specifier-head agreement explains such cases, and that this explanation cannot be reduced to a semantic fact. 1

Resolving Agency and Telicity via Syntax and Word-formation. Secondary Verbs in English

Proceedings of the 12th Conference for Young Scholars of the FCML, 2015

Secondary verbs in English are a recent development whose motivation has not been accounted for in the literature. This paper argues that they start their life as functionally distinct counterparts of primary verbs, accommodating the conceptual categories of agency and telicity in a grammatical context that excludes the ergative element of Halliday and Matthiessen (2004). In our view, transitivity overrides this ergative element and its split in the syntax of primary verbs to result in the transitive-only analogically formed secondary verbs. Thus, agency and telicity are resolved via an interface of syntax and word-formation.

The long and winding road towards a theory of grammatical relations

Journal of Pragmatics, 1991

ed.. Objects-Tnwurds CI rheq qf grunmurical rdhms. London etc.: Academic Press, 1984. x + 302pp.. US $ 72.00 (hardcover). Some of the ideas discussed in this review article have been presented in Nedergaard Thomsen 1987 and in Haberland and Nedergaard Thomsen 1991. Haberland and Nedergaard Thomsen 1990 is (in part) a very much condensed version of the present article.

Grammaticalization in action and beyond

International Review of Pragmatics, 2021

As a result of the rapid development of en plan in contemporary Spanish a wide range of recent studies have paid attention to the grammaticalization process transforming this adverbial locution (meaning ‘in a certain way, with a certain purpose’) into a pragmatic marker. However, previous research fails to capture the complex semantic networks and synchronic multifunctionality of en plan. The present study takes on a polygrammaticalization mechanism and describes two main sets of clines. The first set of clines concerns the evolution of en plan into a mitigation device; the second set deals with its grammaticalization as an intensifier. Moreover, the recently defined discursive mechanism of cooptation is thoroughly applied for the first time to Spanish. The contribution deals with written and oral data from different geographical varieties and gives support to a “grammaticalization-cooptation-grammaticalization” hypothesis in the emergence of en plan as a brand-new pragmatic marker ...

The autonomy of grammar and semantic internalism

In his post-Tractatus work on natural language use, Wittgenstein defended the notion of what he dubbed the autonomy of grammar. According to this thought, grammar -or semantics, in a more recent idiom -is essentially autonomous from metaphysical considerations, and is not answerable to the nature of things. The argument has several related incarnations in Wittgenstein's post-Tractatus writings, and has given rise to a number of important insights, both critical and constructive. In this paper I will argue for a potential connection between Wittgenstein's autonomy argument and some more recent internalist arguments for the autonomy of semantics. My main motivation for establishing this connection comes from the fact that the later Wittgenstein's comments on grammar and meaning stand in opposition to some of the core assumptions of semantic externalism.