Constructional change across the lifespan: The nominative and infinitive in early modern writers
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Lynn Anthonissen
Abstract
This paper presents one of the first attempts at exploring whether constructional change of syntactic constructions is possible within the adult lifespan of individual speakers. It does so by zooming in on diachronic changes in passives of the type He is said to be a thief, a construction known as the nominative and infinitive (NCI). Two main usage types are discerned: the evidential NCI (He is said to be a sinner) and the modalized NCI (He may be said to be a sinner). Exploring the writings of four early modern authors, the study demonstrates that the proportions of these usage types shift during the lifetimes of all investigated authors, with informants showing linear trends that persist into old age. The general increase in evidential uses is argued to reflect the construction’s growing emancipation from the passive construction and its increasing specialization into a reportative evidential marker.
Abstract
This paper presents one of the first attempts at exploring whether constructional change of syntactic constructions is possible within the adult lifespan of individual speakers. It does so by zooming in on diachronic changes in passives of the type He is said to be a thief, a construction known as the nominative and infinitive (NCI). Two main usage types are discerned: the evidential NCI (He is said to be a sinner) and the modalized NCI (He may be said to be a sinner). Exploring the writings of four early modern authors, the study demonstrates that the proportions of these usage types shift during the lifetimes of all investigated authors, with informants showing linear trends that persist into old age. The general increase in evidential uses is argued to reflect the construction’s growing emancipation from the passive construction and its increasing specialization into a reportative evidential marker.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- List of tables and figures VII
- Grammar – discourse – context: Grammatical variation and change and the usage-based perspective 1
- Contextualizing Old English noun phrases 15
- Syntax, text type, genre and authorial voice in Old English: A data-driven approach 49
- The intensifier system of the Ormulum and the interplay of micro-level and macro-level contexts in linguistic change 93
- Constructional change across the lifespan: The nominative and infinitive in early modern writers 125
- Contextualizing dual-form adverbs in the Old Bailey Corpus: An assessment of semantic, pragmatic, and sociolinguistic factors 157
- Bridging contexts in the reanalysis of naturally as a sentence adverb: A corpus study 191
- From parataxis to amalgamation: The emergence of the sentence-final is all construction in the history of American English 221
- The role of context in the entrenchment of new grammatical markers in World Englishes 249
- Paradigms, host classes, and ancillariness: A comparison of three approaches to grammatical status 277
- The motivated unmotivated: Variation, function and context 305
- Grammar in context: On the role of hypercharacterization in language variation and change 333
- List of contributors 365
- Index 367
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- List of tables and figures VII
- Grammar – discourse – context: Grammatical variation and change and the usage-based perspective 1
- Contextualizing Old English noun phrases 15
- Syntax, text type, genre and authorial voice in Old English: A data-driven approach 49
- The intensifier system of the Ormulum and the interplay of micro-level and macro-level contexts in linguistic change 93
- Constructional change across the lifespan: The nominative and infinitive in early modern writers 125
- Contextualizing dual-form adverbs in the Old Bailey Corpus: An assessment of semantic, pragmatic, and sociolinguistic factors 157
- Bridging contexts in the reanalysis of naturally as a sentence adverb: A corpus study 191
- From parataxis to amalgamation: The emergence of the sentence-final is all construction in the history of American English 221
- The role of context in the entrenchment of new grammatical markers in World Englishes 249
- Paradigms, host classes, and ancillariness: A comparison of three approaches to grammatical status 277
- The motivated unmotivated: Variation, function and context 305
- Grammar in context: On the role of hypercharacterization in language variation and change 333
- List of contributors 365
- Index 367
