The historical development of the it -cleft
-
Amanda L. Patten
Abstract
This chapter compares two approaches to a particular grammatical change. While Ball (1991, 1994) investigates the development of the it-cleft configuration from within the generative tradition of the 1990s, I have recently re-examined the historical it-cleft data from a constructional perspective (see Patten 2010, 2012). In this chapter, I show how our different theoretical assumptions lead us to categorize and analyse the data differently. I conclude that a constructional approach is better at interpreting the diachronic facts.
Abstract
This chapter compares two approaches to a particular grammatical change. While Ball (1991, 1994) investigates the development of the it-cleft configuration from within the generative tradition of the 1990s, I have recently re-examined the historical it-cleft data from a constructional perspective (see Patten 2010, 2012). In this chapter, I show how our different theoretical assumptions lead us to categorize and analyse the data differently. I conclude that a constructional approach is better at interpreting the diachronic facts.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
-
Introduction
- Theory and data in cognitive linguistics 1
- Frequencies, probabilities, and association measures in usage-/exemplar-based linguistics 15
- Reconstructing constructional semantics 49
- The historical development of the it -cleft 87
- Theory and data in diachronic Construction Grammar 115
- The semantics of definite expressions and the grammaticalization of THE 141
- Cognitive explanations, distributional evidence, and diachrony 185
- Word classes 211
- Smashing new results on aspectual framing 239
- Index 261
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
-
Introduction
- Theory and data in cognitive linguistics 1
- Frequencies, probabilities, and association measures in usage-/exemplar-based linguistics 15
- Reconstructing constructional semantics 49
- The historical development of the it -cleft 87
- Theory and data in diachronic Construction Grammar 115
- The semantics of definite expressions and the grammaticalization of THE 141
- Cognitive explanations, distributional evidence, and diachrony 185
- Word classes 211
- Smashing new results on aspectual framing 239
- Index 261
