Defining grammatical constructions as a linguistic sign: The case of periphrastic progressives in the Germanic languages
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Jeroen van Pottelberge
Abstract
In typological and contrastive investigations, constructions that designate similar categories of meaning in different languages are often assigned to the same grammatical category. In order for a linguistic investigation to be truly comparative, however, it is not enough for the constructions that are being compared to be mere translation equivalents: they must be identifiable as genuine grammatical constructions in the languages in question. This problem becomes particularly acute with periphrastic constructions, as on formal grounds they cannot always be easily distinguished from free syntactic combinations.
This article seeks to define periphrastic constructions on the basis of a renewed interpretation of Saussure's (1916) theory of the linguistic sign. It is argued that in order for periphrastic grammatical constructions to constitute linguistic signs in their own right they must meet the same criteria as lexemes or morphemes, i.e. they must be combinations of a specific linguistic content with specific formal characteristics. This definition is applied to several constructions in the Germanic languages that have been treated as progressives in the literature; the empirical evidence shows that the status of some of them as linguistic signs, and hence as genuine grammatical constructions, is questionable.
© Mouton de Gruyter – Societas Linguistica Europaea
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Accessibility Theory applied to French: The case of il and celui-ci
- Hesitation phenomena in the language production of bilingual speakers: The role of working memory
- Force dynamics, fictive dynamicity, and the Finnish verbs of ‘remaining’
- Defining grammatical constructions as a linguistic sign: The case of periphrastic progressives in the Germanic languages
- The syntax of English comitative constructions
- Book Reviews
- Report on the 39th Annual Meeting of the Societas Linguistica Europaea (Bremen, 30 August – 2 September 2006)
- Acknowledgements
- 40th Annual Meeting of the Societas Linguistica Europaea 29 August–1 September 2007
- Publications Received
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Accessibility Theory applied to French: The case of il and celui-ci
- Hesitation phenomena in the language production of bilingual speakers: The role of working memory
- Force dynamics, fictive dynamicity, and the Finnish verbs of ‘remaining’
- Defining grammatical constructions as a linguistic sign: The case of periphrastic progressives in the Germanic languages
- The syntax of English comitative constructions
- Book Reviews
- Report on the 39th Annual Meeting of the Societas Linguistica Europaea (Bremen, 30 August – 2 September 2006)
- Acknowledgements
- 40th Annual Meeting of the Societas Linguistica Europaea 29 August–1 September 2007
- Publications Received
