Andriani, L., Groothuis, K. and G. Silvestri, 2020. Pathways of Grammaticalisation in Italo- Romance. Special Issue of Probus (Eds: A. Ledgeway, I. Roberts). (original) (raw)
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Pathways of Grammaticalisation in Italo-Romance
Probus
The aim of this contribution is to discuss three possible theoretical interpretations of grammaticalised structures in present-day Italo-Romance varieties. In particular, we discuss and analyse three diachronic case studies in relation to the generative view of grammaticalisation. The first case-study revolves around the expression of future tense and modality. This is discussed in the light of the assumption according to which grammaticalised elements result from merging elements in higher positions than their original merge positions within the lexical domain, giving rise to the upward directionality of the grammaticalisation process within the clause (Roberts, Ian G. and Anna Roussou, 2003, Syntactic change: A minimalist approach to grammaticalization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). The second case study challenges this view, by discussing irrealis complementisers as a case of a downward pathway of grammaticalization at the CP level. For our third case study, namely the ...
Convergent Grammaticalization of Some Romance Auxiliaries
Revue roumaine de linguistique LIX(4)/2014
The paper discusses a situation that may occur during the historical process of grammaticalization. This phenomenon, labelled convergent grammaticalization, consists of several items evolving along clines that ultimately lead to a single grammatical function. After a brief theoretical projection, the paper analyses three such situations: the French future, the Italian passive, and the Romanian future. In each of these cases, two or more items began to grammaticalize, drew closer and closer in meaning, construction and usage, and ended by competing for the same grammatical meaning, with more or less predictible issues. Such convergencies may occur or have occurred during any grammaticalization process, with important consequences upon the pace and issue of the process.
Lingvisticae Investigationes, 2017
In several works on grammaticalization, one of the authors of this paper has established a grammaticalization cline which posits three major Romance languages: French at one extreme, Spanish at the other, and Italian in between (Lamiroy 1999, 2001, 2003, 2011, Lamiroy & De Mulder 2011, De Mulder & Lamiroy, 2012, Van de Velde & Lamiroy 2017). Our purpose is to place Catalan on this cline. To achieve our goal, we use data of Catalan related to several topics, viz. auxiliaries, past tense, existential sentences, mood and demonstratives. Catalan shows contradictory evidence: whereas the grammaticalization process in certain domains suggests that it parallels Spanish and Italian, in many others, it patterns with French. Thus the hypothesis for which we provide evidence here is the following cline : French > Catalan > Italian > Spanish.
Lexical splits within periphrasis: mixed perfective auxiliation systems in Italo-Romance
Morphology, 2017
This paper addresses the phenomenon of mixed paradigms, i.e. mixed perfective auxiliation systems, attested in a wide range of Italo-Romance varieties (cf. Loporcaro 2001, 2007a, 2014; Manzini and Savoia 2005, among others). In these varieties, two auxiliary verbs, ESSE and HABERE, alternate within one and the same (sub)paradigm, displaying various patterns which can range from morphosyntactically motivated to apparently unmotivated distributions (here termed 'morphomic'). I propose that, in these varieties, auxiliary selection is no longer a syntactically driven phenomenon, but becomes morphologized. I draw on the notion of 'lexical split' (cf. Corbett 2013, 2015, 2016) and describe the attested splits induced by intraparadigmatic auxiliary alternation. Following Bonami (2015), I put forward a typology of such splits. It is shown that, apart from motivated distributions, some morphomic patterns can also be found. The typology becomes more complex insofar as patterns with free variation between both auxiliaries are taken into account, as well as patently morphomic patterns which also seem to display external syntactic relevance (cf. Corbett 2013: 174-176). The phenomena reviewed and discussed in this paper are of major interest because they demonstrate the existence of competing exponence strategies within periphrasis, thus enriching the notion of 'possible lexeme' (cf. Corbett 2015: 146).
This article determines a sequence of stages that form the 'simultaneous path', a linear progression according to which certain resultative expressions develop into present tenses. First, the author hypothesizes that this type of evolution is expected to be analogous to the orderliness of the other wellestablished development of resultative grams during which resultative inputs evolve into anteriors, perfectives and past grams (the anterior path) traversing three verbal domains (i.e. taxis, aspect and tense). The theorized shape of the simultaneous path (from simultaneous resultatives, through statives and towards simple presents) is subsequently corroborated by a methodology referred to as 'dynamization of typology'. It is demonstrated that meanings provided by concrete grams -successors of resultative expressions -can be matched with the three hypothesized phases of this developmental path.
'Learnèd' syntactic influence is to be seen as a special case of language contact, the mechanism of which must form part of a general theory of language change and feature within the histories of individual languages. The identification of 'learnèd' syntactic features is especially problematic in the Romance languages, where Latin is both the lending and the parent language. In this article, I examine one case of learnèd syntactic influence which interestingly also suffers demise, and show that the many factors involved its rise and fall preclude a simplistic account of learnèd influence as mere imitative borrowing; they also shed light on the role of structural congruency in such influence and the apparent paradox that a construction can be favoured in one period and abandoned in another.
Grammaticalization as pattern formation: Romanian auxiliaries from a diachronic Romance perspective
Revue roumaine de linguistique, 2020
By studying the grammaticalization of Romanian auxiliaries from a diachronic Romanian and a comparative Romance perspective, this paper argues that the output of grammaticalization is a predictable pattern in a given language, i.e. a language-specific parametric choice. Specifically, in the passage from old to modern Romanian we observe that a number of emergent periphrastic structures (innovations in contrast to Latin) died out, against the well-known transition from syntheticity to analyticity in the development of the Romance languages (i.e. the profusion of auxiliary structures in this particular situation). In order to account for what appears to be a diachronic paradox, we show that, under a rich cartographic structure of the IP, Romanian auxiliaries systematically grammaticalize as exponents of the category mood; the auxiliaries of the now-defunct periphrases have a richer feature matrix (and this accounts for their demise). The MoodP is also the target of synthetic (finite) verb movement, hence Romanian is, (micro)parametrically, a mood-oriented language, a hypothesis which accounts for the particular diachrony of periphrastic constructions in this language, as well as other properties.