John Benjamins Publishing Company
The Spanish verb-particle construction [V para atrás ]
Abstract
Spanish verb-particle constructions such as llamar para atrás ‘call back’ or ir para atrás ‘go back’, which are found among bilingual speakers in the USA, have been attributed either to structural and/or semantic contact with English or to merely language-internal evolutions.
In the present contribution, I provide a qualitative corpus study on the role of [V para atrás] in European, Mexican, and US Spanish, combining a constructional framework with cognitive-semantic, variational and pragmatic-functional approaches.
The study reveals that [V para atrás] can be considered a constructional idiom situated in the middle range between lexicon and syntax in all three varieties under study. It also shows that [V para atrás] in US Spanish differs from European and Mexican Spanish with regard to its extended combinatorial properties and the degree of meaning extensions from the spatial into the aspectual domain. These findings allow a more nuanced view on the role of language contact and constructional change, since the properties of US Spanish [V para atrás] can be modelled via intra- and interlingual inheritance links in the cognitive network of bilingual speakers.
Abstract
Spanish verb-particle constructions such as llamar para atrás ‘call back’ or ir para atrás ‘go back’, which are found among bilingual speakers in the USA, have been attributed either to structural and/or semantic contact with English or to merely language-internal evolutions.
In the present contribution, I provide a qualitative corpus study on the role of [V para atrás] in European, Mexican, and US Spanish, combining a constructional framework with cognitive-semantic, variational and pragmatic-functional approaches.
The study reveals that [V para atrás] can be considered a constructional idiom situated in the middle range between lexicon and syntax in all three varieties under study. It also shows that [V para atrás] in US Spanish differs from European and Mexican Spanish with regard to its extended combinatorial properties and the degree of meaning extensions from the spatial into the aspectual domain. These findings allow a more nuanced view on the role of language contact and constructional change, since the properties of US Spanish [V para atrás] can be modelled via intra- and interlingual inheritance links in the cognitive network of bilingual speakers.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface vii
- Widening the scope 1
-
Section 1. Constructions in multilingual practices
- Idioconstructions in conflict 17
- “Ok, qui d’autre na, nobody on the line right now?” 55
- Cognitive models of language contact 81
-
Section 2. Constructional change in language contact
- A Diasystematic Construction Grammar analysis of language change in the Afrikaans and English finite verb complement clause construction 109
- The Spanish verb-particle construction [V para atrás ] 139
-
Section 3. Language contact between typologically different languages
- Non-Dravidian elements and (non)diasystematic change in Malayalam 191
- Making one’s way in Welsh 233
- From letters to families 267
-
Section 4. Multilingual constructions in language acquisition
- Additional language acquisition as emerging multilingualism 309
- Something I was dealing with 339
- Intensifying constructions in second language acquisition 375
- Author Index 429
- Construction Index 431
- Language Index 433
- Subject Index 435
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface vii
- Widening the scope 1
-
Section 1. Constructions in multilingual practices
- Idioconstructions in conflict 17
- “Ok, qui d’autre na, nobody on the line right now?” 55
- Cognitive models of language contact 81
-
Section 2. Constructional change in language contact
- A Diasystematic Construction Grammar analysis of language change in the Afrikaans and English finite verb complement clause construction 109
- The Spanish verb-particle construction [V para atrás ] 139
-
Section 3. Language contact between typologically different languages
- Non-Dravidian elements and (non)diasystematic change in Malayalam 191
- Making one’s way in Welsh 233
- From letters to families 267
-
Section 4. Multilingual constructions in language acquisition
- Additional language acquisition as emerging multilingualism 309
- Something I was dealing with 339
- Intensifying constructions in second language acquisition 375
- Author Index 429
- Construction Index 431
- Language Index 433
- Subject Index 435
