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Chapter 2. Subcategorization and change

A diachronic analysis of sin embargo (de que)
  • and

Abstract

This paper analyzes the syntactic and semantic changes undergone by the PP sin embargo ‘without obstacle/impediment’ as it develops its clause-taking properties in Spanish from the 12th to the 16th centuries, essential for its further reanalysis as a concessive connective. We argue against an account that explains this change through a metaphor from the lack of a barrier in the sociophysical world to the epistemic world. Instead, we show that the syntactic and semantic change stems from the subcategorization properties of the noun embargo, which in the 1400s selects for the preposition de and later for the complementizer que, with scope over a proposition. The selection of a clausal complement, and hence the increase in scope of the original prepositional phrase, underlies the creation of the sentence connective.

Abstract

This paper analyzes the syntactic and semantic changes undergone by the PP sin embargo ‘without obstacle/impediment’ as it develops its clause-taking properties in Spanish from the 12th to the 16th centuries, essential for its further reanalysis as a concessive connective. We argue against an account that explains this change through a metaphor from the lack of a barrier in the sociophysical world to the epistemic world. Instead, we show that the syntactic and semantic change stems from the subcategorization properties of the noun embargo, which in the 1400s selects for the preposition de and later for the complementizer que, with scope over a proposition. The selection of a clausal complement, and hence the increase in scope of the original prepositional phrase, underlies the creation of the sentence connective.

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Preface ix
  4. Introduction 1
  5. Part 1. Language structure and use
  6. Chapter 1. se -marked directed motion constructions 11
  7. Chapter 2. Subcategorization and change 31
  8. Chapter 3. Variable clitic placement in US Spanish 49
  9. Chapter 4. Variable negative concord in Brazilian Portuguese 71
  10. Chapter 5. The simultaneous lenition of Spanish /ptk/ and /bdɡ/ as a chain shift in progress 95
  11. Chapter 6. Are Argentines a- blind? 121
  12. Chapter 7. The importance of motivated comparisons in variationist studies 143
  13. Chapter 8. The past persists into the present 169
  14. Chapter 9. “El vos nuestro es, ¡Ey vos , chigüín!” 191
  15. Part 2. Interacting grammars
  16. Chapter 10. Acquisition of articulatory control or language-specific coarticulatory patterns? 213
  17. Chapter 11. Voice onset time and the child foreign language learner of Spanish 237
  18. Chapter 12. “Extraña uno lo que es la tortillas” 259
  19. Chapter 13. Mothers’ use of F0 after the first year of life in American English and Peninsular Spanish 281
  20. Chapter 14. Extra-syntactic factors in the that- trace effect 309
  21. Chapter 15. An initial examination of imperfect subjunctive variation in Catalonian Spanish 333
  22. Chapter 16. Testing English influence on first person singular “yo” subject pronoun expression in Sonoran Spanish 355
  23. Index 373
Contemporary Trends in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics
This chapter is in the book Contemporary Trends in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics
https://doi.org/10.1075/ihll.15.03ama

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Preface ix
  4. Introduction 1
  5. Part 1. Language structure and use
  6. Chapter 1. se -marked directed motion constructions 11
  7. Chapter 2. Subcategorization and change 31
  8. Chapter 3. Variable clitic placement in US Spanish 49
  9. Chapter 4. Variable negative concord in Brazilian Portuguese 71
  10. Chapter 5. The simultaneous lenition of Spanish /ptk/ and /bdɡ/ as a chain shift in progress 95
  11. Chapter 6. Are Argentines a- blind? 121
  12. Chapter 7. The importance of motivated comparisons in variationist studies 143
  13. Chapter 8. The past persists into the present 169
  14. Chapter 9. “El vos nuestro es, ¡Ey vos , chigüín!” 191
  15. Part 2. Interacting grammars
  16. Chapter 10. Acquisition of articulatory control or language-specific coarticulatory patterns? 213
  17. Chapter 11. Voice onset time and the child foreign language learner of Spanish 237
  18. Chapter 12. “Extraña uno lo que es la tortillas” 259
  19. Chapter 13. Mothers’ use of F0 after the first year of life in American English and Peninsular Spanish 281
  20. Chapter 14. Extra-syntactic factors in the that- trace effect 309
  21. Chapter 15. An initial examination of imperfect subjunctive variation in Catalonian Spanish 333
  22. Chapter 16. Testing English influence on first person singular “yo” subject pronoun expression in Sonoran Spanish 355
  23. Index 373
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