Signs of grammaticalization
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Sarah Schwarz
Abstract
In this study, I examine a large number of get-passives from different genres and time periods in the Corpus of Historical American English for signs of grammaticalization by looking for evidence of semantic bleaching and morphosyntactic generalization. A comparable set of be-passives is included as a control group throughout. The study shows a dramatic increase in the frequency of central get-passives between the 1870s and the 1990s. Changes in situation type, subject type, and range of past-participle collocates, which are traced through all four genres in the corpus, provide further indications that the get-passive is continuing to grammaticalize over the period.
Abstract
In this study, I examine a large number of get-passives from different genres and time periods in the Corpus of Historical American English for signs of grammaticalization by looking for evidence of semantic bleaching and morphosyntactic generalization. A comparable set of be-passives is included as a control group throughout. The study shows a dramatic increase in the frequency of central get-passives between the 1870s and the 1990s. Changes in situation type, subject type, and range of past-participle collocates, which are traced through all four genres in the corpus, provide further indications that the get-passive is continuing to grammaticalize over the period.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
- The dynamics of changes in the early English inflection 9
- “Subsumed under the dative”? 35
- ‘Thone vpon thother’ 57
- Leveraging grammaticalization 77
- Old English wolde and sceolde 111
- A corpus-based study on the development of dare in Middle English and Early Modern English 129
- Counterfactuality and aktionsart 149
- Conservatism or the influence of the semantics of motion situation in the choice of perfect auxiliaries in Jane Austen’s letters and novels 175
- Signs of grammaticalization 199
- From time-before-place to place-before-time in the history of English 223
- Variation and change at the interface of syntax and semantics 247
- Further explorations in the grammar of intensifier marking in Modern English 269
- The rivalry between far from being + predicative item and its counterpart omitting the copula in Modern English 287
- Index 309
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
- The dynamics of changes in the early English inflection 9
- “Subsumed under the dative”? 35
- ‘Thone vpon thother’ 57
- Leveraging grammaticalization 77
- Old English wolde and sceolde 111
- A corpus-based study on the development of dare in Middle English and Early Modern English 129
- Counterfactuality and aktionsart 149
- Conservatism or the influence of the semantics of motion situation in the choice of perfect auxiliaries in Jane Austen’s letters and novels 175
- Signs of grammaticalization 199
- From time-before-place to place-before-time in the history of English 223
- Variation and change at the interface of syntax and semantics 247
- Further explorations in the grammar of intensifier marking in Modern English 269
- The rivalry between far from being + predicative item and its counterpart omitting the copula in Modern English 287
- Index 309
