Volume 37, Issue 6

The articles in this special issue are all broadly concerned with various aspects of the rise of grammatical items and functional categories and represent a variety of theoretical approaches to the analysis of the nature of such items. They arise out of a workshop held at the XIIIth International Conference on Historical Linguistics at Düsseldorf in August, 1997, titled “Functional Categories and Morphosyntactic Change.” The term “functional categories” should be understood in a broad sense, comprising in general those linguistic categories that convey grammatical rather than lexical information (tense, mood, case, certain types of prepositions, and so on), as well as the more specific theoretical approach in which such categories are each assigned separate status as structurally represented phrases: current versions of the principles-and-parameters approach spearheaded by Chomsky.

This paper presents an approach to the well-known diachronic phenomenon of grammaticalization in terms of a modified version of Chomsky's (1995: chapter 4) minimalist approach to syntax, combined with the general approach to language change outlined in Clark and Roberts (1993). The central idea that we follow is that grammaticalization involves the reanalysis of lexical material as functional material. We argue that the reason this kind of change is so common is that the reanalysis involves structural simplification, a kind of change that is preferred by the parameter-setting device, according to Clark and Roberts (1993). A number of well-known cases of grammaticalization are discussed: the development of English modal auxiliaries, the development of agreement markers from pronouns, the development of negation and N-words, and the development of wh-pronouns. In the last two cases a different kind of simplification is involved: the lexical subset principle, which requires lexical items to be interpreted in the smallest set of contexts consistent with the input. Both the lexical subset principle and the tendency toward structural simplification stem from the same property of computational conservativity that characterizes the parameter-setting device.

Grammaticalization, the change by which lexical categories become functional categories, is overwhelmingly irreversible. Prototypical functional categories never become prototypical lexical categories, and less radical changes against the general directionality of grammaticalization are extremely rare. Although the pervasiveness of grammaticalization has long been known, the question of why this change is irreversible has not been asked until fairly recently. However, no satisfactory explanation has been proposed so far. Irreversibility cannot be attributed to the lack of predictability, to the interplay of the motivating factors of economy and clarity, or to a preference for simple structures in language acquisition. I propose an explanation that follows the general structure of Keller's (1994) invisible-hand theory: language change is shown to result from the cumulation of countless individual actions of speakers, which are not intended to change language, but whose side effect is change in a particular direction. Grammaticalization is a side effect of the maxim of extravagance, that is, speakers' use of unusually explicit formulations in order to attract attention. As these are adopted more widely in the speech community, they become more frequent and are reduced phonologically. I propose that degrammaticalization is by and large impossible because there is no counteracting maxim of “anti-extravagance,” and because speakers have no conscious access to grammaticalized expressions and thus cannot use them in place of less grammaticalized ones. This is thus a usage-based explanation, in which the notion of imperfect language acquisition as the locus of change plays no role.

In this article the historical development of the English semimodal verb dare will be presented in the light of the grammaticalization of the other English modal verbs. In a current version of Chomsky's principles-and-parameters framework we will investigate the morphosyntactic aspects of this process. Assuming that the modals in Old English are verbs that are generated in VP and subsequently move to a functional position, it will be argued that at the end of the Middle English period they were reanalyzed as functional elements generated in that same position. On the basis of the development of dare , which split into an auxiliary and a main verb, we will argue that grammaticalization is not necessarily a unidirectional process of language change. It characterizes the elimination of its synchronic instantiation, syntactic movement, and may bring about both grammatical and lexical elements.

Within X-bar theory prepositions are standardly taken to constitute one of the core lexical categories along with verbs, nouns, and adjectives definable by the features [±V, ±N]. Synchronically, however they share properties with both lexical and functional categories, while diachronically they are usually the outcome of processes of grammaticalization affecting true lexical categories such as verbs, nouns, and adjectives. The present paper analyzes in detail the stages whereby prepositions in Latin and Romance evolve from earlier adverbial particles and concludes that this diachronic trajectory is best modeled within a framework that separates the relational structure of a PP from its configurational representation. It is argued that lexical-functional grammar, with its systematic distinction between f-structure and c-structure, provides a better account of these changes than conventional X-bar theory. In conclusion a possible role for optimality theory within a formal account of syntactic change is briefly sketched.

This article discusses the decline of the genitive in Dutch and its relation to current genitive-like constructions in DP, such as the - s -construction, the z'n -construction, and the van -construction. Phonological processes alone cannot be held responsible for the loss of case morphology. An independent theory of hierarchically ordered case explains why cases disappear in a particular order. As the accusative and dative were reduced, this eliminated the very roots of the case system, and language learners were subsequently unable to develop the genitive. The genitive was succeeded by two constructions that are essentially different, namely the van -construction and the - s -construction. A syntactic analysis of each of these constructions is presented and compared to another possessive structure, the z'n -construction. The van -construction arises because a noun, as opposed to a verb, does not allow its functional complement to be unspecified. The birth of the prenominal - s -construction is related to the arrival of a determiner system. The last section discusses remnants of morphological genitives in noun phrases. These forms are acquired at a relatively later stage in life, much like a second language, and are therefore not part of core grammar.

October 7–12, San Feliu de Guixols, Spain: The Structure of Learner Language: Information Structure, Linguistic Structure, and the Dynamics of Acquisition. European Research Conference co-sponsored by the European Science Foundation and the Euroconferences Activity of the European Union. This conference proposes to investigate the language-internal factors — in particular the communicative and structural forces — that shape the (adult) acquisition process and its outcome. The conference should be of interest to L2, and also L1, researchers investigating functional, cognitive, and grammatical aspects of language acquisition, and more generally to researchers of different types of language change. For further information: Christine Dimroth, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, The Netherlands; e-mail: christine.dimroth@mpi.nl.

Armstrong, Nigel; and Unsworth, Sharon: Sociolinguistic variation in southern French schwa. Issue 1, 127–156.