Grammaticalization, subjectification and leftward movement of English adjectives of difference in the noun phrase

Tine Breban

doi:10.1515/FLIN.2008.259

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Grammaticalization, subjectification and leftward movement of English adjectives of difference in the noun phrase

Tine Breban

Published/Copyright: February 16, 2009

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From the journal Volume 42 Issue 3-4

This paper deals with grammaticalization and subjectification processes affecting adjectives in the English noun phrase (henceforth NP). It investigates Adamson's (2000) claim that grammaticalization in the NP is accompanied by movement of the grammaticalizing adjective to more leftward positions in the premodifying string. I will argue that this type of movement is implied in the concepts of grammaticalization (Traugott 1989, 1995) and subjectification (Langacker 1990, 1998, 1999) as they apply to the NP. I will then illustrate my argument with a semantic analysis of six adjectives of difference, different, distinct, divers(e), several, sundry and various, whose diachronic development is established on the basis of six corpus studies.

Keywords:: grammaticalization; subjectification; leftward movement; English noun phrase; adjective

Received: 2007-03-19

Revised: 2007-05-02

Accepted: 2007-09-23

Published Online: 2009-02-16

Published in Print: 2008-November

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Articles in the same Issue

https://doi.org/10.1515/FLIN.2008.259

Keywords for this article

grammaticalization; subjectification; leftward movement; English noun phrase; adjective