So -adj- a construction as a case of obsolescence in progress
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Karolina Rudnicka
Abstract
The main focus of this study is the so-adj-a construction seen as an instantiation of grammatical obsolescence in progress. Starting at where Klégr’s (2010) synchronic study of the construction’s local grammar and syntactic functions leaves it, the present work provides a diachronic account of changes in the frequency of use in the last two centuries; their implications; and an overview of possible causes that had led to the situation in which the construction became considerably rare in Present Day English. Methodologically, the paper features quantitative and statistical analyses of corpus data. The work uses the framework for the investigation of grammatical obsolescence designed in the author’s doctoral thesis (Rudnicka 2019). Additionally, the present chapter suggests extravagance as a cognitive motivation behind the emergence of the so-adj-a construction.
Abstract
The main focus of this study is the so-adj-a construction seen as an instantiation of grammatical obsolescence in progress. Starting at where Klégr’s (2010) synchronic study of the construction’s local grammar and syntactic functions leaves it, the present work provides a diachronic account of changes in the frequency of use in the last two centuries; their implications; and an overview of possible causes that had led to the situation in which the construction became considerably rare in Present Day English. Methodologically, the paper features quantitative and statistical analyses of corpus data. The work uses the framework for the investigation of grammatical obsolescence designed in the author’s doctoral thesis (Rudnicka 2019). Additionally, the present chapter suggests extravagance as a cognitive motivation behind the emergence of the so-adj-a construction.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Lost in Change 1
-
Part I. Modelling loss: Description, theory and method
- A typological perspective on the loss of inflection* 21
- So -adj- a construction as a case of obsolescence in progress 51
- The impersonal construction in the texts of Updated Old English 75
- Corpus driven identification of lexical bundle obsolescence in Late Modern English 101
- A constructional account of the loss of the adverse avertive schema in Mandarin Chinese 131
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Part II. Motivations and explanations for loss: Language-internal and external factors
- Loss or variation? Functional load in morpho-syntax – Three case studies 161
- “The next Morning I got a Warrant for the Man and his Wife, but he was fled” 199
- On the waning of forms – A corpus-based analysis of decline and loss in adjective amplification 235
- Decline and loss in the modal domain in recent English* 261
- German so -relatives 291
- Loss of object indexation in verbal paradigms of Koĩc (Tibeto-Burman, Nepal) 333
- Index 363
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Lost in Change 1
-
Part I. Modelling loss: Description, theory and method
- A typological perspective on the loss of inflection* 21
- So -adj- a construction as a case of obsolescence in progress 51
- The impersonal construction in the texts of Updated Old English 75
- Corpus driven identification of lexical bundle obsolescence in Late Modern English 101
- A constructional account of the loss of the adverse avertive schema in Mandarin Chinese 131
-
Part II. Motivations and explanations for loss: Language-internal and external factors
- Loss or variation? Functional load in morpho-syntax – Three case studies 161
- “The next Morning I got a Warrant for the Man and his Wife, but he was fled” 199
- On the waning of forms – A corpus-based analysis of decline and loss in adjective amplification 235
- Decline and loss in the modal domain in recent English* 261
- German so -relatives 291
- Loss of object indexation in verbal paradigms of Koĩc (Tibeto-Burman, Nepal) 333
- Index 363
