Origins and development of adjectival passives in Spanish
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Cristina Marco
Abstract
To date, it has generally been assumed that most contemporary uses of Spanish estar ‘be.loc’ arose some time after the use of ser ‘be’, and that the former eventually took over most uses of the latter. Previous analyses of diachronic change in estar claim that the usage of this verb became generalized as a result of some reanalysis or grammaticalization change, presumably taking over the result state and locative uses of ser. In this paper we wish to go one step further and investigate the questions of how adjectival passive estar + participle emerged in Spanish and how it extended its usage at the expense of ser based on an empirical analysis of data coming from a large corpus of Spanish texts from the 12th to the 20th century. We propose that the first and most frequent uses of estar determined the way the participial construction emerged and further extended itself, gradually usurping uses of ser, and that the language change mechanism which drove this development was analogy. More specifically, we argue that this development was driven by the analogical relations established between participles appearing with this verb and locative prepositional phrases.
Abstract
To date, it has generally been assumed that most contemporary uses of Spanish estar ‘be.loc’ arose some time after the use of ser ‘be’, and that the former eventually took over most uses of the latter. Previous analyses of diachronic change in estar claim that the usage of this verb became generalized as a result of some reanalysis or grammaticalization change, presumably taking over the result state and locative uses of ser. In this paper we wish to go one step further and investigate the questions of how adjectival passive estar + participle emerged in Spanish and how it extended its usage at the expense of ser based on an empirical analysis of data coming from a large corpus of Spanish texts from the 12th to the 20th century. We propose that the first and most frequent uses of estar determined the way the participial construction emerged and further extended itself, gradually usurping uses of ser, and that the language change mechanism which drove this development was analogy. More specifically, we argue that this development was driven by the analogical relations established between participles appearing with this verb and locative prepositional phrases.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Ser and estar 1
-
Ser and estar and aspect
- More than a copula 23
- Ser, estar and two different modifiers 51
- Sentences as predicates 85
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Ser and estar beyond aspect
- The inference of temporal persistence and the individual/stage level distinction 119
- Location and the estar/ser alternation 147
- What do Spanish copulas have in common with Tibetan evidentials? 173
- On word order in Spanish copular sentences 203
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The extension and loss of copulas
- Origins and development of adjectival passives in Spanish 239
- Eventive and stative passives and copula selection in Canadian and American Heritage Speaker Spanish 267
- The development and use of the Spanish copula with adjectives by Korean-speaking learners 293
- Index 325
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Ser and estar 1
-
Ser and estar and aspect
- More than a copula 23
- Ser, estar and two different modifiers 51
- Sentences as predicates 85
-
Ser and estar beyond aspect
- The inference of temporal persistence and the individual/stage level distinction 119
- Location and the estar/ser alternation 147
- What do Spanish copulas have in common with Tibetan evidentials? 173
- On word order in Spanish copular sentences 203
-
The extension and loss of copulas
- Origins and development of adjectival passives in Spanish 239
- Eventive and stative passives and copula selection in Canadian and American Heritage Speaker Spanish 267
- The development and use of the Spanish copula with adjectives by Korean-speaking learners 293
- Index 325
