Home Linguistics & Semiotics From a single lexical unit to multiple grammatical paradigms
Chapter
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

From a single lexical unit to multiple grammatical paradigms

  • Kirsten Jeppesen Kragh and Lene Schøsler
View more publications by John Benjamins Publishing Company
Search
Perspectives on Language Structure and Language Change
This chapter is in the book Perspectives on Language Structure and Language Change

Abstract

This paper studies the reanalysis, grammaticalisation, and paradigmatization of constructions becoming members of grammatical paradigms. The changes are illustrated by means of a single lexical unit, i.e. the French verb of perception, voir “to see”. The verb is found in very different contexts, which have been reanalysed and resulted in grammaticalized structures. Therefore, voir provides an interesting illustration of the pathway of a lexical unit into grammar. One reanalysis has resulted in the creation of voir followed by the deictic relative as part of a marker of progression, i.e. as a member of the category of tense, aspect, and mood. Another pathway involves the imperative form of the verb, which has grammaticalized as presentatives (voici and voilà). These forms have undergone further grammaticalization or, following the terms of Henning Andersen, regrammation, into markers of focalization.

Abstract

This paper studies the reanalysis, grammaticalisation, and paradigmatization of constructions becoming members of grammatical paradigms. The changes are illustrated by means of a single lexical unit, i.e. the French verb of perception, voir “to see”. The verb is found in very different contexts, which have been reanalysed and resulted in grammaticalized structures. Therefore, voir provides an interesting illustration of the pathway of a lexical unit into grammar. One reanalysis has resulted in the creation of voir followed by the deictic relative as part of a marker of progression, i.e. as a member of the category of tense, aspect, and mood. Another pathway involves the imperative form of the verb, which has grammaticalized as presentatives (voici and voilà). These forms have undergone further grammaticalization or, following the terms of Henning Andersen, regrammation, into markers of focalization.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Preface ix
  4. Perspectives on language structure and language change 1
  5. Part I. On the theory of language change
  6. Andersen (1973) and dichotomies of change 13
  7. Induction and tradition 35
  8. Approaching the typology and diachrony of morphological reversals 81
  9. Deconstructing markedness in sound change typology 107
  10. Part II. Indexicality
  11. Diachronic morphology, indexical function and a critique of the morphome analysis 125
  12. Word order as grammaticalised semiotic systems 151
  13. Part III. Problems of reanalysis
  14. Anticausative and passive in Vedic 181
  15. Grammaticalization and degrammati(calizati)on in the development of the Iranian verb system 193
  16. Aspects of grammaticalization and reanalysis in the voice domain in the transition from Latin to early Italo-Romance 205
  17. From preverbal to postverbal in the early history of Japanese 233
  18. Reanalysis in the Russian past tense 253
  19. From a single lexical unit to multiple grammatical paradigms 271
  20. Morphosyntactic reanalysis in Australian languages 295
  21. Definiteness in Germanic and Balto-Slavic 311
  22. Part IV. Actualization
  23. Diatopy and frequency as indicators of spread 327
  24. Suppletion or illusion? 345
  25. Part V. Language change and diachronic typology in Balto-Slavic
  26. A complicated relationship 359
  27. Name-calling 381
  28. Changes of tense and modality in Late Mediaeval Slovene 395
  29. Index 411
https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.345.12kra

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Preface ix
  4. Perspectives on language structure and language change 1
  5. Part I. On the theory of language change
  6. Andersen (1973) and dichotomies of change 13
  7. Induction and tradition 35
  8. Approaching the typology and diachrony of morphological reversals 81
  9. Deconstructing markedness in sound change typology 107
  10. Part II. Indexicality
  11. Diachronic morphology, indexical function and a critique of the morphome analysis 125
  12. Word order as grammaticalised semiotic systems 151
  13. Part III. Problems of reanalysis
  14. Anticausative and passive in Vedic 181
  15. Grammaticalization and degrammati(calizati)on in the development of the Iranian verb system 193
  16. Aspects of grammaticalization and reanalysis in the voice domain in the transition from Latin to early Italo-Romance 205
  17. From preverbal to postverbal in the early history of Japanese 233
  18. Reanalysis in the Russian past tense 253
  19. From a single lexical unit to multiple grammatical paradigms 271
  20. Morphosyntactic reanalysis in Australian languages 295
  21. Definiteness in Germanic and Balto-Slavic 311
  22. Part IV. Actualization
  23. Diatopy and frequency as indicators of spread 327
  24. Suppletion or illusion? 345
  25. Part V. Language change and diachronic typology in Balto-Slavic
  26. A complicated relationship 359
  27. Name-calling 381
  28. Changes of tense and modality in Late Mediaeval Slovene 395
  29. Index 411
Sign up now to receive a 20% welcome discount
Institutional Access
How does access work?
Have an idea on how to improve our website?
Please write us.
© 2025 De Gruyter Brill
Downloaded on 8.9.2025 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1075/cilt.345.12kra/html
Scroll to top button