Publications

The aim of this contribution is to discuss three possible theoretical interpretations of grammaticalised structures in present-day Italo-Romance varieties. In particular, we discuss and analyse three diachronic case studies in relation to the generative view of grammaticalisation. The first case-study revolves around the expression of future tense and modality. This is discussed in the light of the assumption according to which grammaticalised ...

© 2018 John Benjamins B.V. This article provides a corpus-based diachronic constructional analysis of the three English cardinal posture verbs (hence CPVs) sit, stand and lie. Contrary to their equivalents in genetically related languages, the English CPVs have not grammaticalised into locative, progressive, or habitual markers or into copulas. The data reveal some degree of grammaticalisation in the earlier stages which suggests that the ...

Romanian sa, Salentino cu and southern Calabrese mu/ma/mi are irrealis subordinators, which also replace the infinitive in many of its uses. The present chapter investigates the diachrony of these elements. It is shown that they are all instances of downward grammaticalisation, deriving from high C-elements which move down to Fin 0 , and in the case of cu and mu, also further down to T- and v¬-related positions. quomodo is proposed as an etymon ...

French pronominal structures, due to their syntactic and semantic flexibility, are particularly conducive to reanalysis and grammaticalization phenomena. Our contribution aims at describing the syntactic, lexico-semantic and cognitive conditions favorable to the reanalysis of pronominal constructions, on the basis of two case studies: (i) the inchoative auxiliary se mettre à, which we will interpret as a case of reanalysis in successive stages ...

Converb constructions are widely used in Uzbek, as in many other Turkic languages. A less studied type of converb construction is the one which can be referred to as the Converb Construction of Motion (CCM). In this article, first, four groups of Uzbek CCMs are distinguished and it is argued that the CCMs starting with olib, the converb of the verb ol- (U+2018takeU+2019), constitute an important subgroup within the second group. It is further ...

Dans cette brève contribution, nous nous demandons quel pourrait être lapport de la théorie de la pertinence à lanalyse des évolutions sémantiques sous-jacentes aux processus de grammaticalisation. Cette question a déjà été soulevée par Nicolle (1998). Nous reprenons ses propositions pour montrer quelles peuvent être combinées avec lanalyse de la grammaticalisation de la séquence aller + infinitif proposée par Detges (1999). Nous essayons de ...

Les textes en latin tardif (2e-6e siècles) et en moyen français (14e-16e siècles) présentent un processus de grammaticalisation analogue au sein du paradigme des déterminants nominaux. Dans les textes administratifs et juridiques en latin classique et en ancien français apparaissent des déterminants avec verbum dicendi (suprascriptus en latin, ledit en français). Plus tard, en latin tardif et en moyen français, ces déterminants deviennent ...

La présente étude concerne lU+2019évolution sémantique et formelle dU+2019un adverbe épistémique du kirundi, umeengo/umeenga, les deux formes constituant des variantes libres. Elle est une des premières études sU+2019inscrivant en linguistique de corpus pour les langues bantoues, une démarche rarement adoptée pour cette famille de langues, de même quU+2019elle étudie une catégorie grammaticale généralement négligée dans les études linguistiques, ...

In addition to its primary temporal meaning, the adverb now displays a variety of pragmatic meanings in present-day English. Now serves as a means to structure topic changes or to emphasise different steps in an argumentation, providing “a temporal index for the world within the utterance” (Schiffrin 1987: 245). On an interpersonal level, the marker can introduce a subjective opinion, often placing the speaker’s view in disalignment with that of ...