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Old French si , grammaticalisation, and the interconnectedness of change

  • Sam Wolfe
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Historical Linguistics 2017
This chapter is in the book Historical Linguistics 2017

Abstract

The particle SI is ubiquitous across the early French textual record, yet receives no uniform analysis, with numerous competing and often contradictory claims in the literature about its distribution and formal status. This study draws on a novel diachronic corpus analysis to put forward an original analysis of SI, under which it is not the homogeneous entity often assumed but rather an adverbial which grammaticalises as a topic-continuity marker and, later, two forms of V2-related expletive. SI loses its previously specific temporal and discourse-pragmatic meaning, shows a widening of distribution and occupies an increasingly high position within the left periphery. In these respects it is shown to instantiate a classic form of upwards grammaticalisation pathway.

Abstract

The particle SI is ubiquitous across the early French textual record, yet receives no uniform analysis, with numerous competing and often contradictory claims in the literature about its distribution and formal status. This study draws on a novel diachronic corpus analysis to put forward an original analysis of SI, under which it is not the homogeneous entity often assumed but rather an adverbial which grammaticalises as a topic-continuity marker and, later, two forms of V2-related expletive. SI loses its previously specific temporal and discourse-pragmatic meaning, shows a widening of distribution and occupies an increasingly high position within the left periphery. In these respects it is shown to instantiate a classic form of upwards grammaticalisation pathway.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Foreword & Acknowledgements ix
  4. Introduction 1
  5. Part I. Case & argument structure
  6. Strategies for aligning syntactic roles and case marking with semantic properties 9
  7. Criteria for subjecthood and non-canonical subjects in Classical Greek 29
  8. Parallel syncretism in early Indo-European 49
  9. Dative possessor in ditransitive Spanish predication, in diachronic perspective 65
  10. ‘Liking’ constructions in Spanish 81
  11. Part II. Alignment & Diathesis
  12. The actualization of new voice patterns in Romance 109
  13. Ergative from passive in Proto-Basque 143
  14. Part III. Patterns, paradigms, & restructuring
  15. Synchrony, diachrony, and indexicality 163
  16. Ablaut pattern extension as partial regularization strategy in German and Luxembourgish 183
  17. Remotivating inflectional classes 205
  18. From noun to quantifier 229
  19. Part IV. Grammaticalization & construction grammar
  20. Old French si , grammaticalisation, and the interconnectedness of change 253
  21. The rise of the analytic Perfect aspect in the West Iranian languages 273
  22. On the grammaticalization of the -(v)ši- resultative in North Slavic 293
  23. Atomizing linguistic change 317
  24. Part V. Corpus linguistics & morphosyntax
  25. The rich get richer 343
  26. Expletives in Icelandic 363
  27. Part VI. Languages in contact
  28. Contact and change in Neo-Aramaic dialects 387
  29. Copying of argument structure 409
  30. Contact-induced change and the phonemicization of the vowel /ɑ/ in Quảng Nam Vietnamese 431
  31. The future markers in Palestinian Arabic: 453
  32. Neuters to none 473
  33. Index 489
  34. Languages & language families 493
https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.350.12wol

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Foreword & Acknowledgements ix
  4. Introduction 1
  5. Part I. Case & argument structure
  6. Strategies for aligning syntactic roles and case marking with semantic properties 9
  7. Criteria for subjecthood and non-canonical subjects in Classical Greek 29
  8. Parallel syncretism in early Indo-European 49
  9. Dative possessor in ditransitive Spanish predication, in diachronic perspective 65
  10. ‘Liking’ constructions in Spanish 81
  11. Part II. Alignment & Diathesis
  12. The actualization of new voice patterns in Romance 109
  13. Ergative from passive in Proto-Basque 143
  14. Part III. Patterns, paradigms, & restructuring
  15. Synchrony, diachrony, and indexicality 163
  16. Ablaut pattern extension as partial regularization strategy in German and Luxembourgish 183
  17. Remotivating inflectional classes 205
  18. From noun to quantifier 229
  19. Part IV. Grammaticalization & construction grammar
  20. Old French si , grammaticalisation, and the interconnectedness of change 253
  21. The rise of the analytic Perfect aspect in the West Iranian languages 273
  22. On the grammaticalization of the -(v)ši- resultative in North Slavic 293
  23. Atomizing linguistic change 317
  24. Part V. Corpus linguistics & morphosyntax
  25. The rich get richer 343
  26. Expletives in Icelandic 363
  27. Part VI. Languages in contact
  28. Contact and change in Neo-Aramaic dialects 387
  29. Copying of argument structure 409
  30. Contact-induced change and the phonemicization of the vowel /ɑ/ in Quảng Nam Vietnamese 431
  31. The future markers in Palestinian Arabic: 453
  32. Neuters to none 473
  33. Index 489
  34. Languages & language families 493
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