Going to surprise: The grammaticalization of itive as mirative
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Daniel Ross
Abstract
Expressions of direction away from the deictic center can sometimes signal an unexpected event, without necessarily indicating motion in space: Look what he went and did this time! These surprise readings have been observed primarily for pseudocoordination constructions in European languages, but this paper provides a broad context for this usage in deictic verbal expressions cross-linguistically. It is proposed that mirative usage like this can be explained as metaphorical movement away from an expected outcome: the way an individual or the world is supposed to behave according to the speaker. Just as motion verbs can grammaticalize from the spatial domain to the temporal domain as tense or aspect markers, they can also extend into the domain of eventualities. Such developments are attested for both verbal morphology and multi-verb constructions. These parallels support the analysis of motion pseudocoordination as instantiating the category of associated motion.
Abstract
Expressions of direction away from the deictic center can sometimes signal an unexpected event, without necessarily indicating motion in space: Look what he went and did this time! These surprise readings have been observed primarily for pseudocoordination constructions in European languages, but this paper provides a broad context for this usage in deictic verbal expressions cross-linguistically. It is proposed that mirative usage like this can be explained as metaphorical movement away from an expected outcome: the way an individual or the world is supposed to behave according to the speaker. Just as motion verbs can grammaticalize from the spatial domain to the temporal domain as tense or aspect markers, they can also extend into the domain of eventualities. Such developments are attested for both verbal morphology and multi-verb constructions. These parallels support the analysis of motion pseudocoordination as instantiating the category of associated motion.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- Romance motion verbs in language change: New approaches and challenges 1
- Motion verbs in Romanian: Language contact and language renewal 23
- Where can we go with [aller/alé ‘go’ + verb] in hexagonal French, French spoken in Gabon and Guianese French Creole? 47
- A diachronic corpus study on the productivity of the French verb-serializing analytic [motion verb + main verb] pattern 85
- The French aller + infinitive construction in instructive discourses: New insights from video cooking shows 107
- “Andiamo a utilizzare il futuro analitico”: On the use of an unused form 135
- Pragmatic profile of a marginalised verbal periphrasis: Functional insights in the use of the Italian verbal periphrasis andare a + infinito in political discourses 157
- Semantic bleaching as an indicator of degrees of periphrasticity: An experimental approach 179
- The category of throw verbs as productive source of the Spanish inchoative construction 213
- (Anti-)Grammaticalization paths of Spanish venir ‘to come’ + past participle 241
- Venir + participle in Spanish: Semantic bleaching or meaning elaboration? 269
- Va y dice & Co.: Motion verbs as quotatives 287
- Going to surprise: The grammaticalization of itive as mirative 311
- Index 347
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- Romance motion verbs in language change: New approaches and challenges 1
- Motion verbs in Romanian: Language contact and language renewal 23
- Where can we go with [aller/alé ‘go’ + verb] in hexagonal French, French spoken in Gabon and Guianese French Creole? 47
- A diachronic corpus study on the productivity of the French verb-serializing analytic [motion verb + main verb] pattern 85
- The French aller + infinitive construction in instructive discourses: New insights from video cooking shows 107
- “Andiamo a utilizzare il futuro analitico”: On the use of an unused form 135
- Pragmatic profile of a marginalised verbal periphrasis: Functional insights in the use of the Italian verbal periphrasis andare a + infinito in political discourses 157
- Semantic bleaching as an indicator of degrees of periphrasticity: An experimental approach 179
- The category of throw verbs as productive source of the Spanish inchoative construction 213
- (Anti-)Grammaticalization paths of Spanish venir ‘to come’ + past participle 241
- Venir + participle in Spanish: Semantic bleaching or meaning elaboration? 269
- Va y dice & Co.: Motion verbs as quotatives 287
- Going to surprise: The grammaticalization of itive as mirative 311
- Index 347
