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The rich get richer

Preferential attachment and the diachrony of light verbs in Old Swedish
  • John D. Sundquist
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Historical Linguistics 2017
This chapter is in the book Historical Linguistics 2017

Abstract

This study investigates five common light verbs in an Old Swedish corpus of texts from 1225–1526, focusing on the increasing frequency with which light verbs combine with an ever-widening range of NP-objects. Tools of statistical analysis from network science and ecology are used to track changes in frequency and diversity. Results indicate that light verbs are a small, closed class of verbs with unique historical properties that set them apart from more lexically-specific verbs. The way in which they grow more frequent and diverse is typical of the “rich-get-richer” phenomenon of preferential attachment in studies of dynamic network growth.

Abstract

This study investigates five common light verbs in an Old Swedish corpus of texts from 1225–1526, focusing on the increasing frequency with which light verbs combine with an ever-widening range of NP-objects. Tools of statistical analysis from network science and ecology are used to track changes in frequency and diversity. Results indicate that light verbs are a small, closed class of verbs with unique historical properties that set them apart from more lexically-specific verbs. The way in which they grow more frequent and diverse is typical of the “rich-get-richer” phenomenon of preferential attachment in studies of dynamic network growth.

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.350.16sun

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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