“The ghosts of old morphology”
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Laurel J. Brinton
Abstract
“Ghost” inflectional morphology that has lost its grammatical function but remains as phonetic material has been argued to have undergone lexicalization (since the inflection becomes an unanalyzable part of the lexical item and emerges as “more lexical”) and/or degrammaticalization (since the inflection loses grammatical function and is hence “less grammatical”); if seen as the natural consequence of an inflection having attained advanced grammatical status, it may also be understood as degrammaticalization. Focusing on comparative -er (near), superlative -est (next), adverbial genitive -s (e.g. once, towards, sideways), and adverbial dative -um (whilom), this paper distinguishes between changes affecting different parts of a construction (i.e. the host words and the inflectional endings) and argues that the inflections are subject to neither lexicalization nor (de)grammaticalization, but are instances of “petrification”.
Abstract
“Ghost” inflectional morphology that has lost its grammatical function but remains as phonetic material has been argued to have undergone lexicalization (since the inflection becomes an unanalyzable part of the lexical item and emerges as “more lexical”) and/or degrammaticalization (since the inflection loses grammatical function and is hence “less grammatical”); if seen as the natural consequence of an inflection having attained advanced grammatical status, it may also be understood as degrammaticalization. Focusing on comparative -er (near), superlative -est (next), adverbial genitive -s (e.g. once, towards, sideways), and adverbial dative -um (whilom), this paper distinguishes between changes affecting different parts of a construction (i.e. the host words and the inflectional endings) and argues that the inflections are subject to neither lexicalization nor (de)grammaticalization, but are instances of “petrification”.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgements vii
- Introduction 1
- Bühler’s two-field theory of pointing and naming and the deictic origins of grammatical morphemes 37
- On the origins of grammaticalization and other types of language change in discourse strategies 51
- Lehmann’s parameters revisited 73
- “Paradigmatic integration” 111
- “The ghosts of old morphology” 135
- Grammaticalization, constructions and the grammaticalization of constructions 167
- Gradualness of grammaticalization in Romance. The position of French, Spanish and Italian 199
- Development of periphrastic tense and aspect constructions in Irish and Welsh 227
- Emergence and grammaticalization of constructions within the se me network of Spanish 249
- A discourse-based analysis of object clitic doubling in Spanish 271
- The many careers of negative polarity items 299
- Author Index 327
- Subject Index 331
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Acknowledgements vii
- Introduction 1
- Bühler’s two-field theory of pointing and naming and the deictic origins of grammatical morphemes 37
- On the origins of grammaticalization and other types of language change in discourse strategies 51
- Lehmann’s parameters revisited 73
- “Paradigmatic integration” 111
- “The ghosts of old morphology” 135
- Grammaticalization, constructions and the grammaticalization of constructions 167
- Gradualness of grammaticalization in Romance. The position of French, Spanish and Italian 199
- Development of periphrastic tense and aspect constructions in Irish and Welsh 227
- Emergence and grammaticalization of constructions within the se me network of Spanish 249
- A discourse-based analysis of object clitic doubling in Spanish 271
- The many careers of negative polarity items 299
- Author Index 327
- Subject Index 331
