(Un)-interpretable features and grammaticalization
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Viviane Déprez
Abstract
To explain the diverse distribution of determiners in French Based Creoles (FBC) a formal model of grammaticalization is proposed in which grammaticalization is taken to encode a change in the interpretability of one or more of the features in a lexical item. Here interpretability is understood as legibility at an interface (Chomsky 2000). By changing the interpretability value of a feature, a lexical item in effect changes its status from that of an attractable element, or GOAL, largely syntactically inert (although it can provide valuation) to that of an attractor, or PROBE, driving the syntactic derivation because it must be checked (i.e. valued or eliminated). This change has important and predictable structuring effects, since feature checking is the operation that motivates syntactic movement in the Minimalist framework. Based on a comparative study of the syntactic and semantic properties of FBC determiners, the paper demonstrates how this model explains the correlation between their striking ordering variations and their meaning on the basis of distinctions in the interpretability of their number and person features.
Abstract
To explain the diverse distribution of determiners in French Based Creoles (FBC) a formal model of grammaticalization is proposed in which grammaticalization is taken to encode a change in the interpretability of one or more of the features in a lexical item. Here interpretability is understood as legibility at an interface (Chomsky 2000). By changing the interpretability value of a feature, a lexical item in effect changes its status from that of an attractable element, or GOAL, largely syntactically inert (although it can provide valuation) to that of an attractor, or PROBE, driving the syntactic derivation because it must be checked (i.e. valued or eliminated). This change has important and predictable structuring effects, since feature checking is the operation that motivates syntactic movement in the Minimalist framework. Based on a comparative study of the syntactic and semantic properties of FBC determiners, the paper demonstrates how this model explains the correlation between their striking ordering variations and their meaning on the basis of distinctions in the interpretability of their number and person features.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword & acknowledgements ix
- Introduction 1
-
Part I. Phonology
- Middle English vowel length in French loanwords 9
- Dental fricatives and stops in Germanic 19
- Dialect variation and the Dutch diminutive 37
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Part II. Morphology, syntax and semantics
- On the disappearance of genitive types in Middle English 49
- An asymmetric view on stage II in Jespersen’s cycle in the West Germanic languages 61
- Temporal reference and grammaticalization in the Spanish perfect(ive) 73
- (Un)-interpretable features and grammaticalization 83
- Imperative morphology in diachrony evidence from the Romance languages 99
- VO vs V(…)O en Français 109
- On the development of Recipient passives in DO languages 123
- The emergence of DP in the history of English 135
- A diachronic view of Psychological verbs with Dative Experiencers in Spanish and Romanian 149
- On the loss of the masculine genitive plural in Cypriot Greek 161
- The rise of peripheral modifiers in the noun phrase 175
- Wild variation, random patterns, and uncertain data* 185
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Part III. Sociolinguistics and dialectology
- Le changement linguistique dans la langue orale selon deux recherches sur le terrain séparées d’un siècle 197
- Patrons sociolinguistiques chez trois générations de locuteurs acadiens 211
- Change of functions of the first person pronouns in Chinese 223
- Vinderup in real time 233
- Variation in real time 245
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Part IV. Tools and methodology
- UNIDIA 259
- Visualization, validation and seriation 269
- Quantifying linguistic changes 285
- Historical core vocabulary: Spring and/or anchor 295
- Index of languages and terms 307
- Index of subjects and terms 309
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword & acknowledgements ix
- Introduction 1
-
Part I. Phonology
- Middle English vowel length in French loanwords 9
- Dental fricatives and stops in Germanic 19
- Dialect variation and the Dutch diminutive 37
-
Part II. Morphology, syntax and semantics
- On the disappearance of genitive types in Middle English 49
- An asymmetric view on stage II in Jespersen’s cycle in the West Germanic languages 61
- Temporal reference and grammaticalization in the Spanish perfect(ive) 73
- (Un)-interpretable features and grammaticalization 83
- Imperative morphology in diachrony evidence from the Romance languages 99
- VO vs V(…)O en Français 109
- On the development of Recipient passives in DO languages 123
- The emergence of DP in the history of English 135
- A diachronic view of Psychological verbs with Dative Experiencers in Spanish and Romanian 149
- On the loss of the masculine genitive plural in Cypriot Greek 161
- The rise of peripheral modifiers in the noun phrase 175
- Wild variation, random patterns, and uncertain data* 185
-
Part III. Sociolinguistics and dialectology
- Le changement linguistique dans la langue orale selon deux recherches sur le terrain séparées d’un siècle 197
- Patrons sociolinguistiques chez trois générations de locuteurs acadiens 211
- Change of functions of the first person pronouns in Chinese 223
- Vinderup in real time 233
- Variation in real time 245
-
Part IV. Tools and methodology
- UNIDIA 259
- Visualization, validation and seriation 269
- Quantifying linguistic changes 285
- Historical core vocabulary: Spring and/or anchor 295
- Index of languages and terms 307
- Index of subjects and terms 309
