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This paper offers a cognitive-functional account of the 'autonomous use'-- i.e., the use without a main verb elsewhere in the clause -- of the Dutch modals ('can'), ('may') and ('must'), as a deviance from their default auxiliary use. The study is corpus-based and takes a predominantly diachronic perspective on the subject matter. It reveals that the autonomous use is strongly increasing in frequency since Early New Dutch, and that it has distinct grammatical properties (a strong tendency towards intransitive uses with a deictic pronoun referring to a state of affairs as the subject) and semantic properties (featuring the full range of (inter)subjective meanings of the auxiliary uses, but with a strong tendency towards deontic modal and directive uses). These properties are clearly different from those of the original main verbal uses from which these modals have emerged in Old and Early Middle Dutch. The paper offers an explanation for the emergence and increasing importance of this new autonomous use in terms of the principle of iconicity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a diachronic corpus investigation into the semantic and the grammatical development of the Dutch mental state predicate denken 'think', from Old Dutch onwards. The discussion focuses specifically on the implications for our understanding of the processes of grammaticalization and subjectification, and their correlation. The verb shows clear signs of a process of semantic subjectification, involving a continuous strengthening of the epistemic use, and the emergence of a pure 'subjectivity' use. But it is highly questionable whether it also involves structural grammaticalization. In particular, the investigation throws an entirely new light on the emergence of the parenthetical use: it suggests a developmental path quite different from what is commonly assumed in the literature. But this path does not involve any processes of grammaticalization. As such, this study also suggests that the processes of grammaticalization and subjectification are less intimately intertwined than is often assumed in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a diachronic corpus investigation into the semantic and the grammatical development of the Dutch mental state predicate denken 'think', from Old Dutch onwards. The discussion focuses specifically on the implications for our understanding of the processes of grammaticalization and subjectification, and their correlation. The verb shows clear signs of a process of semantic subjectification, involving a continuous strengthening of the epistemic use, and the emergence of a pure 'subjectivity' use. But it is highly questionable whether it also involves structural grammaticalization. In particular, the investigation throws an entirely new light on the emergence of the parenthetical use: it suggests a developmental path quite different from what is commonly assumed in the literature. But this path does not involve any processes of grammaticalization. As such, this study also suggests that the processes of grammaticalization and subjectification are less intimately intertwined than is often assumed in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]