Search

This article presents a corpus study of complex verb constructions in Old Dutch. A systematic search of the Old Dutch Corpus uncovers a set of fifteen complex verb constructions which all stack two auxiliaries (one finite and one nonfinite) on top of a main verb. The oldest and most frequent complex verb construction in the corpus is a future passive construction combining finite sullan 'shall' with nonfinite werthan 'be' and a past participle. The article discusses all fifteen complex verb constructions in detail and sketches the wider linguistic context in which they are found. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the degree of grammaticalization of the periphrasis . For that purpose, its syntactic and semantic evolution is studied in a diachronic corpus of examples that covers the period from the 13th century until the 21st century. The quantitative analysis of a number of syntactic features, specifically the adjacency of the auxiliary verb and the gerund, the internal order of the two verb forms and the movement of the clitic toward the auxiliary, shows that on a formal level grammaticalization of the periphrasis is complete, while, at the same time, its relative frequency has remained stable. On the other hand, in the semantic range the periphrasis displays a less consistent behaviour. Although in the course of time the verb andar loses its lexical meaning of physical movement and the subject of the construction is faced with a weakening of control, phenomena that point at a complete grammaticalization of the periphrasis, the existence of selective restrictions regarding the gerund suggests that the grammacalization process has not come to an end yet. Therefore, the case of reveals the stratification and gradualness of the grammaticalization process, which does not affect every linguistic level in the same way and at the same time, but gradually spreads through the different features that make up a construction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Departing from a proposal by Keizer on how to bridge the gap between the grammar and the lexicon in Functional Discourse Grammar (FDG), this article deals with three aspectual verbal periphrases in Spanish, which are, in the order of their degrees of grammaticalization, (i) weakly grammaticalized resultative tener + participle, (ii) egressive parar de + infinitive and (iii) strongly grammaticalized habitual soler + infinitive. In spite of their different syntactic behaviors, none of them is a truly lexical or truly grammatical item. After a detailed description of the syntax and semantics of these auxiliary constructions in comparison with truly auxiliary constructions, the article discusses the proposal by García Velasco (this issue) for the lexicon in FDG. This serves as a starting point for the development of the concept of lexical auxiliaries, which is then applied to the three periphrastic constructions. The representation of these constructions in FDG makes use of "combinations of partially instantiated frames," introduced by Keizer (this issue), and adequately reflects the meanings and the morphosyntactic structure of lexical auxiliaries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This articles investigates the rise of double modal constructions in Dutch. Double modal constructions combine two modal auxiliaries with one lexical verb (e.g. zal moeten gaan 'shall have to go'). Little is known on why and how such complex verb constructions came into being. This article presents historical data for the earliest double modal constructions in Middle Dutch (13th century) drawing on both previous corpus studies and on new empirical observations. The historical data is then analyzed from a diachronic construction grammar perspective. The main theoretical point of this article is that the emergence of double modal constructions is a case of 'constructional complexification', i.e. the process in which constructions become increasingly larger in size. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lwitaxo, one of the Luhya languages of Kenya, has an auxiliary verb of the form -many’a that occurs in compound constructions that express either a generic reading (“normally do V”) or a culminative reading (“ended up V-ing”). This verb is identical in form to the lexical verb -many’a ‘(come to) know’. However, while there are attested cases of KNOW verbs grammaticalizing as habitual/generic auxiliaries, there are no such attestations of KNOW verbs grammaticalizing as indicators of culmination. The author proposes that auxiliary -many’a is the unique result of a convergence of factors—sound change, morphophonological analogy, and semantic reinterpretation—that led an original auxiliary, -mala ‘finish’, to shift in form to resemble lexical -many’a.

The interaction of several cases of grammaticalization going back to different source constructions may have dramatic consequences on a linguistic system. This paper discusses the so-called German scandal construction, which consists of a verbal complex displaying a number of synchronic form-meaning mismatches. The scandal is solved if a diachronic point of view is adopted, which shows that the mismatches result from the intraference of two different source constructions expanded in the course of the German linguistic history, namely the Perfekt construction and the zu-infinitive construction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The English have-perfect can be traced to Old English [habban ‘have’ + noun + perfect participle]. A comparative look at the development of the have-perfect in Romance suggests a way to reassess the Old English corpus, which in turn reveals that the string [habban + noun + perfect participle] had three distinct structures and values aside from the periphrastic perfect. The author shows that the likeliest source of the have-perfect is a periphrasis denoting the achievement of a result or a persisting resultant state. This implies that the relationship between possessive and auxiliary habban is less direct than previously claimed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The Romance languages all display periphrastic perfects that can be traced to Latin [habere “have” + noun + perfect participle]. A new survey of the Latin corpus reveals that this string had three distinct structures and values. I argue that the likeliest source of the perfects is a periphrasis denoting the achievement of a result or a persisting resultant state. This implies that the relationship between possessive and auxiliary habere is more complex than previously supposed. Finally, I examine the range of values that this periphrasis takes across the Romance languages. I maintain that the growth of the perfect at the expense of the preterite followed an orderly pattern, with requirements on the temporal denotation of the perfect successively relaxed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper treats the problem of possible correlation between the current order of morphemes in a word and the order of syntactic elements from which they evolved at some point in the language history. A well-documented morpheme formation, the Ukrainian synthetic imperfective future, is examined in the grammaticalization framework, and numerous attested examples from different stages of the change from imati 'have' to a future affix are presented. The history of this change clarifies the relation between a single case of grammaticalization and the syntactic structure of a language by showing that the position of the affix has never marked the typological category of the language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to assess, in light of the theoretical formalism, the grammaticalization process which involves the verb "pegar" in periphrastic constructions [PEGAR+ (e) + V2]. In this analytical context, the verb "pegar" does not denote the most prototypical sense of "holding", but it seems to denote aspectual features. In reaching this conclusion, we found traces present in the transitive verb "pegar" in its various meanings and we relate these traces with changes in the behavior of the verb such as the morphosyntactic and semantic features. In the description and analysis of events formed by [PEGAR + (e) + V2], we map clues that allowed us to analyze the occurrences of the verb "pegar" behaving as an auxiliary verb. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several European languages have periphrastic constructions involving 'see' as a voice auxiliary, in particular a reflexive construction such as the following from Portuguese: a empresa viu-se obrigada a despedir 30 trabalhadores 'the company found itself forced to lay off 30 workers'. This construction is the passive of 'see'. Passives of 'see' can be derived systematically from non-reflexive constructions involving dependent past participial and infinitival clauses whose subjects are not co-referential with the subject of 'see'. In this perspective, the passive of 'see' emerges as an instance of a more general pattern, specialized by use of the reflexive verb form and the past participial clause. The object of this study is the Portuguese ver-se passive. The paradigmatic relations of this construction to active constructions and to other periphrastic voices as well as its semantic constraints are analyzed, and its origins in the history of the language are traced. We claim that the construction is well underway to grammaticalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on Istro-Romanian and argues that the TAM auxiliaries of this variety are not morphophonological clitics. This analysis is supported by the existence of several empirical phenomena (auxiliary-licensed VP-ellipsis, scrambling, and interpolation), some not found in modern Romance, others very rare in modern Romance. This property of Istro-Romanian auxiliary verbs accounts, in conjunction with other features of this variety (e.g., the availability of C-oriented and I-oriented pronominal clitics), for the massive variation in the word order of pronominal clitics, auxiliaries, and the lexical verb found in the Istro-Romanian sentential core. An endangered Romance variety spoken in Istria and in the diaspora, historically related to (Daco-)Romanian, Istro-Romanian has been in contact with Croatian since the settlement of Istro-Romanians in the Istrian peninsula. As some of the Istro-Romanian features and phenomena are found both in Croatian and in old Romanian, it appears that contact with Croatian acts as a catalyst of structural convergence engendering the retention of an archaic property of Istro-Romanian auxiliaries: a lower position on the grammaticalization cline, closer to the full word status of their etyma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]