Unfolding constructions
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Rea Peltola
Abstract
This paper explores the semantic motivation of postmodal auxiliaries in complement constructions conveying mirativity in French and Finnish. French pouvoir ‘can’ and Finnish pitää ‘should’ both occur as postmodal markers in complements of epistemic and axiological items. These constructions refer to events that deviate from what is discursively projected as expected. As a modal verb of possibility, pouvoir profiles the meaning ‘p and not ¬p’, which is based on an opposition, while pitää, originally a necessity verb, gives prominence to the paradigmatic meaning ’p instead of q1, q2…’. While the two verbs function in a similar manner as indexes of an interclausal semantic link in mirative constructions, the meaning of unexpectedness is not construed in the same way, and the critical contexts in the evolution of postmodal complement patterns with pouvoir and pitää are of a different type.
Abstract
This paper explores the semantic motivation of postmodal auxiliaries in complement constructions conveying mirativity in French and Finnish. French pouvoir ‘can’ and Finnish pitää ‘should’ both occur as postmodal markers in complements of epistemic and axiological items. These constructions refer to events that deviate from what is discursively projected as expected. As a modal verb of possibility, pouvoir profiles the meaning ‘p and not ¬p’, which is based on an opposition, while pitää, originally a necessity verb, gives prominence to the paradigmatic meaning ’p instead of q1, q2…’. While the two verbs function in a similar manner as indexes of an interclausal semantic link in mirative constructions, the meaning of unexpectedness is not construed in the same way, and the critical contexts in the evolution of postmodal complement patterns with pouvoir and pitää are of a different type.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Modality in Diachronic Construction Grammar 1
- Contractions, constructions and constructional change 13
- Exploring relative degrees of auxiliarization empirically in German modal constructions with wissen and verstehen 53
- Grammaticalization of verdienen into an auxiliary marker of deontic modality 81
- The diachrony of Galician certamente and seguramente 123
- Unfolding constructions 149
- Horizontal links within and between paradigms 185
- Constructionalization of Japanese koto imperatives 219
- Index 247
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Modality in Diachronic Construction Grammar 1
- Contractions, constructions and constructional change 13
- Exploring relative degrees of auxiliarization empirically in German modal constructions with wissen and verstehen 53
- Grammaticalization of verdienen into an auxiliary marker of deontic modality 81
- The diachrony of Galician certamente and seguramente 123
- Unfolding constructions 149
- Horizontal links within and between paradigms 185
- Constructionalization of Japanese koto imperatives 219
- Index 247
