The developmental logic of the analytic past in German and Polish
-
Werner Abraham✝
Abstract
Other than Russian, but to all appearances like Czech, Polish is developing a new auxiliary from mieć “have, possess” that it can use for the hitherto unknown analytic past. We aim to observe what the status of this innovation in Polish is: whether or not it is to be tracked back to a contact phenomenon induced by neighboring German; whether its distributions are accompanied, or even triggered, by erosion of lexical aspectual and morphological oppositions; whether or not it follows the same grammaticalizing path as medieval German; whether it cuts the same portions in the lexical inventory of verbs on the criterion [±motion] yielding sein/byt’≠ haben/mieć-pasts. One may duly conclude that the appearance of the new Polish periphrastic past is not due to contact influence from German. Its grammaticalizing steps are in part consonant with those of the early development in German. We shall draw consequences from specific differences in the Polish and German developments, and we shall try to sketch the unifying component.
Abstract
Other than Russian, but to all appearances like Czech, Polish is developing a new auxiliary from mieć “have, possess” that it can use for the hitherto unknown analytic past. We aim to observe what the status of this innovation in Polish is: whether or not it is to be tracked back to a contact phenomenon induced by neighboring German; whether its distributions are accompanied, or even triggered, by erosion of lexical aspectual and morphological oppositions; whether or not it follows the same grammaticalizing path as medieval German; whether it cuts the same portions in the lexical inventory of verbs on the criterion [±motion] yielding sein/byt’≠ haben/mieć-pasts. One may duly conclude that the appearance of the new Polish periphrastic past is not due to contact influence from German. Its grammaticalizing steps are in part consonant with those of the early development in German. We shall draw consequences from specific differences in the Polish and German developments, and we shall try to sketch the unifying component.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
-
Scandinavian
- On the syntax of the accusative/dative alternation in spatial PPs in Norwegian dative dialects 9
- Spurious topic drop in Swedish 27
-
Germanic sociolinguistics
- “The voice from below” 53
- Gender maintenance and loss in Totenmålet, English, and other major Germanic varieties 77
-
French
- Non-finite adjuncts in French 111
- Topics and the left periphery 131
-
Language change
- The developmental logic of the analytic past in German and Polish 175
- The diachrony of pronouns and demonstratives 195
-
Lesser-studied languages
- Origins of metathesis in Batsbi 221
- Indefinitely definite expressions 239
-
Language acquisition
- Doing diachrony 259
- The acquisition of linguistic variation 275
-
Language evolution
- The evolution of language 301
- Language as technology 327
- Index 359
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Introduction 1
-
Scandinavian
- On the syntax of the accusative/dative alternation in spatial PPs in Norwegian dative dialects 9
- Spurious topic drop in Swedish 27
-
Germanic sociolinguistics
- “The voice from below” 53
- Gender maintenance and loss in Totenmålet, English, and other major Germanic varieties 77
-
French
- Non-finite adjuncts in French 111
- Topics and the left periphery 131
-
Language change
- The developmental logic of the analytic past in German and Polish 175
- The diachrony of pronouns and demonstratives 195
-
Lesser-studied languages
- Origins of metathesis in Batsbi 221
- Indefinitely definite expressions 239
-
Language acquisition
- Doing diachrony 259
- The acquisition of linguistic variation 275
-
Language evolution
- The evolution of language 301
- Language as technology 327
- Index 359
