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THE DIACHRONY OF DERIVATION Muriel Norde. AIMS. To contribute to a better understanding of the derivation – inflection interface by discussing the origins of derivational and inflectional morphology To examine the implications of the diachronic findings for grammaticalization theory. OUTLINE.
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THE DIACHRONY OF DERIVATION Muriel Norde
AIMS • To contribute to a better understanding of the derivation – inflection interface by discussing the origins of derivational and inflectional morphology • To examine the implications of the diachronic findings for grammaticalization theory
OUTLINE • Derivation vs. inflection: synchronic observations • The origins and development of derivational and inflectional morphology • Transitions from derivation to inflection and vice versa • Theoretical discussion
SYNCHRONIC OBSERVATIONS • Obligatoriness • Lexicon vs. syntax • The ability to change word-class • Cumulative exponence
DERIVATION VS. INFLECTION • obligatoriness • derivation: ; inflection: the duckling was swimming the duck was swimming *the duckling was swim (but: femine suffix may be (semantically) obligatory: the lioness / *lion gave birth to two cubs)
DERIVATION VS. INFLECTION • part of syntax • derivation: ; inflection: The prince is lazy / Prinsen är lat The princess is lazy / Prinsessan är lat The princes are lazy / Prinsarna är lata (Subj-V concord) / (N-Adj concord) (but: feminine derivational suffixes may affect concord) la lionne / *lion est grande de boerin / *boer (/ vrouw) d’r klompen)
DERIVATION VS. INFLECTION • The ability to change word-class • derivation: ; inflection: beauty (N) > beautiful (Adj) great (Adj) > greatness (N) (but: some inflectional suffixes may change word-class The singVingADJ detective Hon sjunger vackerADJtADV ‘She sings beautifully’ (-t = NEUT.SG)
DERIVATION VS. INFLECTION • Cumulative exponence (portmanteau morphemes) • derivation:; inflection: IE nominal suffixes, e.g. Lat. –us in servus: simultaneous realizations of gender, number and case (but: feminine derivational suffixes may be cumulative: vend-re vend-eur vend-euse V V-AGENT V-AGENT-FEMALE)
CONCLUSION • Fuzzy boundaries • Derivation and inflection form a continuum (Dalton-Puffer 1996): lexical > derivational-lexical (e.g. lovely)> derivational-grammatical (e.g. patiently) > inflectional (Booij 2002): lexical > derivational > inherently inflectional (e.g. participle suffixes) > contextual inflectional
DIACHRONY: GRAMMATICALIZATION • “Grammaticalization consists in the increase of the range of a morpheme advancing from a lexical to a grammatical or from a less grammatical to a more grammatical status.” (Kuryłowicz 1975 [1965] • “[…] an evolution whereby linguistic units lose in semantic complexity, pragmatic significance, syntactic freedom, and phonetic substance […]”(Heine & Reh 1984
DIACHRONY: CLINES • The cline of grammaticality content item > grammatical word > clitic > inflectional affix mot (N) > mot (P) ‘meeting’ > ‘against’ hin > in > -in DEMONSTRATIVE > CLITIC > DEFINITE SUFFIX • The cline of lexicality part of phrase > part of compound > derivational affix manz lik > man(z)lik > manlig ‘a man’s body’ > ‘man’s body’ > ‘masculine’
OTHER ORIGINS • Not all grammatical change is grammaticalization! • inflectional suffixes: e.g. rebracketing OSw. æple – æple – æple-na ‘apple – apples - the apples’ (PL suffix –ø) MoSw. äpple – äpple-n – äpplen-a (PL suffix –n) • derivational suffixes: e.g. clitics
WHERE DO THEY GO? Derivational affixes • fossilize • PGmc –m to derive agent nouns from verbs: bloem ‘flower’, storm ‘storm’, helm‘helmet’ (cf. MoDu verbs bloeien ‘to bloom’, storen ‘to disturb’, helen ‘(older): ‘to cover’) • lexicalize • Fascism and other isms • Juices and ades (< Lemonade) • degrammaticalize • Du tig ‘umpteen’ (< -tig ‘ty’ as in twintig ’20’ etc.) • become inflectional
WHERE DO THEY GO? Inflectional affixes: • become –ø • most nominal and verbal suffixes in English • fossilize (hardly) • Du schoen(< PL of schoe ‘shoe’) • degrammaticalize • Eng / ContScand enclitic s-genitive • do not lexicalize • become derivational
FROM DERIVATION TO INFLECTION • Proto-Scand *sik ‘self’ > enclitic sk > Old Norse derivational –st > MoScand inflectional –s(t) • Evidence for derivational status, e.g. word-class changing st-verbs in ON, e.g. V fyrnast ‘age, become older’ < Adj forn ‘old’ • English adverbial –ly (productive and obligatory)
FROM INFLECTION TO DERIVATION • Old Swedish MASK.SG.NOM –er > Modern Swedish nominalization suffix, e.g. en dummer ‘a stupid person’ • Old Swedish NEUT.PL.NOM/ACC –on > “berry-name suffix” as in hallon ‘raspberry’) > count noun derivation suffix, e.g. päron ‘pear’ • Swedish NEUT.SG –t > adverbial –t : examples of derived adverbs without adjectival counterpart, e.g. enbart ‘only’ (*enbar) RARE
THEORETICAL ISSUES • Derivational affixes: grammaticalization or lexicalization (= creation of new lexemes)? • Pro-lexicalization: new items are added to the lexicon • but: derived item as a whole is added, not derivational suffix itself • Pro-grammaticalization: derivational afffixes have many characteristics of grammaticalized items • notable exception: they do not become part of a paradigm
THEORETICAL ISSUES • Grammaticalization properties (Heine / Kuteva 2002) and Swedish –lig (e.g. ljuvlig ‘lovely) < lik ‘body’ • 1: Desemanticization or semantic bleaching loss of (concrete) meaning: • meaning ‘body’ is lost • 2: Extension or context generalization use in new contexts: • -lig can derive Adj from V: tro ‘believe’ > trolig ‘conceivable’ • 3: Decategorialization loss of morphosyntactic properties (e.g. inflection): • 4: Erosion or phonetic reduction loss of phonetic substance:
THEORETICAL ISSUES • Possible solution to reconcile opposite views: derivational affix is grammaticalized item which itself is involved in a lexicalization process • Himmelmann 2004: lexicalization is a process sui generis
THEORETICAL ISSUES • If derivational affixes and inflectional affixes develop along different clines, how can they form a continuum?
THEORETICAL ISSUES • Extended cline of lexicality: phrase > compound > derivation affix > inherent inflection affix > inflection affix
CONCLUSIONS • Instead of describing grammatical change in terms of clines, it is better to describe their subchanges • Instead of universal pathways, it is better to speak of tendencies • Inflectional affixes may have different origins • There are no “end-points” in grammatical change
MORE INFO • This presentation and more: http://odur.let.rug.nl/~norde/downloadables.htm (coming soon)