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THE GRAMMATICALIZATION OF ADVERBS two case studies Muriel Norde

THE GRAMMATICALIZATION OF ADVERBS two case studies Muriel Norde. OUTLINE. Preliminaries the category of adverbs grammaticalization vs. lexicalization Case studies epistemic adverbs Dutch intensifying tig Theoretical discussion. THE CATEGORY OF ADVERBS. Open or closed class ?

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THE GRAMMATICALIZATION OF ADVERBS two case studies Muriel Norde

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  1. THE GRAMMATICALIZATION OF ADVERBS two case studies Muriel Norde

  2. OUTLINE • Preliminaries • the category of adverbs • grammaticalization vs. lexicalization • Case studies • epistemic adverbs • Dutch intensifying tig • Theoretical discussion Colloque Fribourg 03-10-2006

  3. THE CATEGORY OF ADVERBS Open or closed class? • Talmy 2000: only N, V and Adj form open classes • Ramat & Ricca 1998: range from relatively open (fortunately) to relatively closed class (monomorphemic advs such as now, just) • Brinton & Traugott 2005: no clear binary distinction between lexical / major / open classes on the one hand and grammatical / minor / closed classes on the other. “Lexical” and “grammatical items form a continuum. Colloque Fribourg 03-10-2006

  4. 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) • “A grammaticalization is a diachronic change by which the parts of a constructional schema come to have stronger internal dependencies” (Haspelmath 2004) • taken litterally: ‘having become grammatical’ Colloque Fribourg 03-10-2006

  5. DEGRAMMATICALIZATION • Based on: the cline of grammaticality content item > grammatical word > clitic > inflectional affix • Single shift from right to left • Constructional identity is preserved • Main mechanisms involved: • reanalysis • resemanticization • decreased bondedness • recategorialization • phonetic strengthening Colloque Fribourg 03-10-2006

  6. LEXICALIZATION • “recruitment of linguistic material to enrich the lexicon” (Hopper & Traugott 1993) • “today’s grammar may become tomorrow’s lexicon” (Ramat 1992) • Dependent on one’s definition of lexicon • Definition adopted here: Brinton & Traugott 2005 “[…] the view that the lexicon does not exist solely of a list of discrete and fully fixed items but represents a continuum from more to less fixed, from more to less fully conventionalized, and from more to less productive items. […] the continuum models of the lexical / grammatical split and of the lexicon fit better with the historical facts of change, which is often (though not always) gradual in the sense that change occurs by very small steps. • Contra GL conception of grammatical categories as discrete entities Colloque Fribourg 03-10-2006

  7. SUBTYPES OF LEXICALIZATION • Function words • Pros en cons • [Shaved her legs and then] he was a she (L. Reed) • Suffixes • ologies (object of study, cf, sociology) • isms (ideology, cf. communism) • phrases • forget-me-not • has-been • no-show • acronyms • sms’es • nimby Colloque Fribourg 03-10-2006

  8. LEXICALIZATION “vs” GRAMMATICALIZATION • Lehmann 2002: e.g. transition N > P is first and foremost a case of lexicalization with subsequent grammaticalization • Antilla 1989: grammaticalization involves lexicalization (e.g. by adding P’s to the lexicon) • Sum: lexicalization is concomitant with, but neither congruent with nor opposite to grammaticalization Colloque Fribourg 03-10-2006

  9. LEXICALIZATION “vs” DEGRAMMATICALIZATION • Ramat 1992: lexicalization = degrammaticalization • What is meant is: lexicalization of affixes (isms etc.) • However: this is just one type of lexicalization • Sum: lexicalization is concomitant, but not synonymous, with degrammaticalization Colloque Fribourg 03-10-2006

  10. CASE STUDY 1 • Epistemic adverbs deriving from ‘may / can be / happen Colloque Fribourg 03-10-2006

  11. ‘MAYBE’ IN SCANDINAVIAN • Swedish kanske < ‘can happen’ • Swedish måhända < ‘may happen’ • Norwegian kanskje < ‘can happen’ • Danish måske < ‘may happen’ Colloque Fribourg 03-10-2006

  12. ‘MAYBE’ IN OTHER LANGUAGES • English maybe • Dutch misschien (< ‘may happen’) • French peut-être • Russian možet (byt’) < ‘may (be)’ • Serbian – Croatian možda < ‘may that’ • Polish może < ‘may’ • Lithuanian gal(būt) < ‘may (be’) Colloque Fribourg 03-10-2006

  13. TYPICAL FEATURES OF SWEDISH KANSKE • prosodically a compound, not a phrase However: phrase-like properties • may be followed by a subordinate clause: Kanske att hon sover Maybe that she sleeps • may violate Swedish V2-rule Colloque Fribourg 03-10-2006

  14. SWEDISH AS A V2 LANGUAGE Colloque Fribourg 03-10-2006

  15. WORD ORDER WITH KANSKE Colloque Fribourg 03-10-2006

  16. WHAT HAPPENED? • Source: MLG mach-schên ‘may happen’ -> loan word maxan (now obsolete) -> loan translations kanske, måhända, kanhända Colloque Fribourg 03-10-2006

  17. KAN SKE AS A PHRASE • thet kan wel skee at en liten hoop offuerwinner en storan ‘It may well happen that a small lott conquers a large (lot)’ • thz kunde honom ekke ske ‘That could not happen to him’ Colloque Fribourg 03-10-2006

  18. SUMMARY: CHANGES INVOLVED • Phonetic reduction • Semantic bleaching • Univerbation • Decategorialization • Layering (phrase-like properties) • Subjectification (from sentence subject to utterance subject) Tentative conclusion: grammaticalization but: Ramat 2001: lexicalization (MN: lexicalization is not a competing term) Colloque Fribourg 03-10-2006

  19. CASE STUDY 2 • Dutch tig from suffix to numeral to intensifier Colloque Fribourg 03-10-2006

  20. ETYMOLOGY • PGmc *teXu- ‘unit of 10’ • > Suffix –tig (engl. -ty, germ. –zig, fris. –tich, sw. –tio) • > Indefinite numeral: tig keer ‘umpteen times’ • > Intensifying adverb: tig leuk ‘very nice’ Colloque Fribourg 03-10-2006

  21. Change 1: TIG AS AN INDEFINITE NUMERAL • Dutch Die kerel heeft al tig vriendinnen gehad • Frisian Dy keardel hat al tich freondinnen hân • German Der Kerl hat schon zig Freundinnen gehabt ‘That guy has already had dozens of girlfriends’ meaning: ‘umpteen, dozens, zillion’ Colloque Fribourg 03-10-2006

  22. ORDINAL TIGSTE • Dutch Je vraagt dat nu al voor de tigste keer! • Frisian Do fregest da no al foar de tichste kear! • German Du fragst das jetzt schon zum zigsten Mal! ‘You are asking that for the zillionth time already!’ Colloque Fribourg 03-10-2006

  23. WHY DEGRAMMATICALIZATION? • decreased bondedness :  • bound > free • independent usage: ik heb er wel tig ‘I’ve got dozens of them’ • resemanticization :  • -tig: ‘x10’, only when combined with numeral stem • tig ‘indefinite, large quantity’ • Subjectification : (!!) • : recategorialization  • ordinal inflection tigste • phonetic strengthening:  (Du/Fri) • -tig: [təx] • tig: [tιx] (possibly spelling pronunciation) Colloque Fribourg 03-10-2006

  24. WHY NOT MERELY LEXICALIZATION? • Lexicalization of numeral suffixes: • Engl.: Girls in their teens ‘aged 13-19’ • It.: Ha passato gli anta ‘he is over forty’ • < quaranta, cinquanta • Isms, teens: hyperonyms • all ideologies ending in –ism • all ages ending in –teen • Lexicalization: one giant leap from affix to lexical element • Tig: does not mean ‘any quantity between 20 and 90’ • Tig: gradual change Colloque Fribourg 03-10-2006

  25. ALTERNATIVE ANALYSES • Haspelmath 2004: back formation, -tig is part of compound • twin- and der- are not independent morphemes • Lehmann 2005: *teguz ‘unit of 10’ > numeral tig, leadning a hidden life in spoken language, “non-demonstrability of non-existence” • : Taboo word? • : No evidence at all, in spite of 1000 years of written sources?? • WNT 1960: no tig • Grimm 1956: zig “in jüngster Zeit” (example from 1935) Colloque Fribourg 03-10-2006

  26. Change 2: DUTCHTIG AS INTENSIFIER • Het is nu al tig laat ‘It is now already very late’ • tig veel antwoorduh ‘Very many answers’ • Shoarma is toch tig lekkerder ‘Shawarma is however much more tasty’ Colloque Fribourg 03-10-2006

  27. GERMAN ZIG AS INTENSIFIER • Ich hab diesen Film schon zig oft gesehen ‘I have seen this film very often already’ • zig viel Geld ‘a whole lot of money’ Colloque Fribourg 03-10-2006

  28. DEGREES Colloque Fribourg 03-10-2006

  29. SUSPENSION TESTS Colloque Fribourg 03-10-2006

  30. RESULT OF SUSPENSION TEST ?Het is al tig laat, om niet te zeggen heel laat. (class V) ‘It is already quite late, if not very late’ Het is al tig laat, om niet te zeggen ontzettend laat (class IV) ‘It is already very late, if not awfully late’ Het is al tig laat (class III) ‘It is already awfully late’ Colloque Fribourg 03-10-2006

  31. SOURCES OF INTENSIFIERS • Heine / Kuteva 2002: • ‘terrible’ and other qualitative adjectives • terribly ugly / beautiful • vreselijk lelijk / mooi • furchtbar hässlich / schön • terriblement laide / belle • hemskt ful / vacker • ‘true’ • very ugly / beautiful (< Older French verray) • richtig hässlich / schön Colloque Fribourg 03-10-2006

  32. MORE SOURCES • “Superlatives” • extremely • extremely ugly / beautiful • extreem lelijk / mooi • ausserordentlich hässlich / schön • madly • madly in love • waanzinnig verliefd • vansinnigt förälskad • ‘Much’ (sometimes with comparatives only) • much better (OE: moche worthy) • veel beter • mycket bättre, mycket bra Colloque Fribourg 03-10-2006

  33. INTENSIFYINGTIG • No cross-linguistic equivalents • Not comparable to much • much is used with mass nouns: much work • tig is used with count nouns: tig mensen / *tig werk Colloque Fribourg 03-10-2006

  34. WHAT HAPPENED? Bridging context (Heine 2002): Er zijn tig betere systemen te koop 1: ‘There are dozens of better systems for sale’ (numeral) 2: ‘There are much better systems for sale’ (adverb) Colloque Fribourg 03-10-2006

  35. WHY GRAMMATICALIZATION? • Semantic bleaching:  • meaning becomes more abstract, functions merely to intensify the meaning of the following adjective or adverb • Decategorialization:  • can no longer be inflected as an ordinal numeral (as could the indefinite numeral tig) • Phonetic reduction: - (no change) • Less syntactic freedom:  • can no longer be used independently • Context expansion:  (from comparatives to simple Adjs) Colloque Fribourg 03-10-2006

  36. OTHERS ON DEGREE ADVERBS • Klein 1998: only degree adverbs deriving from qualitative adjectives (terribly) are instances of gz, because they involve semantic “bleaching” • She is terribly mean • She is terribly beautiful (bleaching) • Brinton & Traugott 2005: all degree adverbs deriving from other adverbs are instances of gz Colloque Fribourg 03-10-2006

  37. IMPLICATIONS FOR UNIDIRECTIONALITY • From suffix to indefinite numeral: “counterdirectional” change • Degrammaticalized elements can (re)grammaticalize • Crucially however, they do not return to the old stage of affairs Colloque Fribourg 03-10-2006

  38. CONCLUDING REMARKS • Lexicalization does not compete with either grammaticalization or degrammaticalization • The present terminology cannot capture the changes involved in the rise of adverbs • Crucially, the mechanisms which are assumed to be defining properties of grammaticalization need to be re-evaluated • In particular, this is true for pragmatic inferencing, subjectification and scope changes • Besides addressing clear-cut cases (the French inflectional future ) attention ought to be paid to changes in the “grey area” Colloque Fribourg 03-10-2006

  39. THANK YOU • This presentation will soon be downloadable from: http://odur.let.rug.nl/~norde/downloadables.htm Colloque Fribourg 03-10-2006

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