Kristin Davidse

Subjectification, Intersubjectification and Grammaticalization

The book examines the relation between (inter-)subjectification and grammaticalization. As such, its aims are to clearly delineate the domain of (inter-)subjectivity - the encoding of speaker and hearer-orientation - in the language system, and to elaborate a grammar-based definition of the diachronic counterparts subjectification and intersubjectification. At the descriptive level, it seeks to test these hypotheses in three areas of grammaticalization research: adverbials, modals and the NP.

Illocutionary force and conduciveness in imperative constant polarity tag questions : A typology

Abstract This article deals with imperative constant polarity tag questions (henceforth imperative CPTQs) such as Leave me alone, will you and Lets have another, shall we. We propose a typology of imperative CPTQs on the basis of a systematic study of data, correlating their distinct formal properties with different contextualized uses. Further developing McGregors (1997) general approach to tag questions, we argue that the main subtypes of imperative CPTQs can be classified in terms of two interpersonal functions: illocutionary force and conduciveness. These two interpersonal dimensions form continua ranging from speaker-oriented to hearer-oriented meanings. The classification in terms of illocutionary force subsumes speaker-oriented command and request, speaker- and hearer-oriented proposal for joint action, and hearer-oriented advice and invitation/offer. The corresponding conduciveness cline involves mainly ‘softening’ at the speaker-oriented end, where the speakers desire predominates, and ‘insisting’ at the hearer-oriented end, which focuses on the benefits to the hearer.

Deictification: The development of secondary deictic meanings by adjectives in the English NP

In this article we make a case for recognizing deictification as a type of grammaticalization and semantic shift in the NP analogous to auxiliarization in the VP. The specific analogy we point out is between lexical verbs that grammaticalize into secondary auxiliaries bound by the finite, as in is going to , has to + verb, and lexically full adjectives that grammaticalize into postdeterminers bound by the primary determiner, as in a different , the same + noun. We present five case studies of the development of postdeterminer meanings, based on the analysis of diachronic and synchronic data. The adjectives studied are opposite , complete , old , regular and necessary , whose postdeterminer uses relate to the basic deictic systems of space, quantity, time and modality. Our analysis of the data shows that the mechanism of secondary deictification can be given a unified characterization as the semantic shift by which a general relation expressed by the adjective is given a subjective reference point in or relative to the speech event.

The grammaticalization of nominal type noun constructions with kind/sort of: chronology and paths of change

Denison distinguishes three main NP constructions with type nouns such as sort/kind/type of in Present-day English, namely the head, postdeterminer and qualifier constructions. The latter two developed from the binominal construction in which lexically full sort/kind/type is the head followed by a second noun designating a superordinate class. In the chronology he posits the postdeterminer construction as an early reanalysis of the binominal construction (c.1390 for all kind of and c.1550 for kind and sort of), whereas the qualifying constructions developed later from it (c.1580 for kind of and c.1710 for sort of), via the mediation of the postdeterminer construction. However, in recent synchronic corpus studies we have distinguished two additional NP constructions with type nouns, namely quantifier and descriptive modifier, on the basis of syntactic, semantic and collocational features. In the present article we consider the diachronic import of these newly distinguished constructions and argue that they are key pivots in the developmental paths that have led from the head construction to constructions in which the type noun is not the head. By thus refining Denisons proposed chronology, we argue that new constructions emerge as the result of complex interlocking paths in which the quantifier and descriptive modifier constructions pre-dated, and helped facilitate and entrench, the postdeterminer and qualifying constructions.

NP-internal functions and extended uses of the ‘type’ nouns kind, sort, and type: towards a comprehensive, corpus-based description

In this paper we investigate the various constructions containing one of the three main type nouns sort, kind and type. Basing ourselves on data from the COBUILD corpus and COLT corpus, we first present a subclassification of the main type noun constructions, which owes a lot to but also expands on Denison (2002) and Aijmer (2002). In comparison with the categories proposed in the current literature, we advocate finer distinctions mainly within the NP-internal uses of type nouns, by positing fundamental structural and semantic distinctions between head uses on the one hand and modifier uses (attributive and semi-suffix) and postdeterminer uses on the other. The subjectified qualifying uses and discourse marker uses of type nouns, by contrast, have been covered rather extensively in the literature. From the existing descriptions we retain the distinction between nominal, adverbial and sentential qualifiers, discourse markers and quotative markers. We then apply this descriptive framework to two British English data sets from opposing registers: written texts from the quality newspaper The Times (COBUILD subcorpus) and spontaneously spoken conversation between teenagers (COLT). The quantification of these analyses reveals strong asymmetries in the relative frequencies of the various type noun uses in the two data sets. While type nouns are used predominantly NP-internally in The Times, adverbial qualifiers and discourse markers predominate in the COLT-data.

On the middle voice: an interpersonal analysis of the English middle

Abstract In this article we approach the phenomenon of the English middle voice from a functional-cognitive perspective. Assuming the distinction between representational and interpersonal layers of organization in the clause (Halliday 1985; Hengeveld 1989; McGregor 1997), we propose that the elements and relations that define the English middle are of an interpersonal nature. We argue that the characteristic relation between nonagentive subject and active VP in the middle cannot be generalized in terms of a specific process-participant relation, as has been attempted in the literature. It cannot be maintained that the subject entity is always affected by the action, nor that it brings about the action, which would obscure the difference between middle and ergative intransitive. Rather, we propose that the middle subject and finite are related to each other by what Talmy (2000) defines as a “letting” modal relation, which we characterize further as combining active and passive elements. Middles construe a subjective assessment of the subject entity, presenting it as lending itself to the action designated by the predicator, and as having properties that are actively conducive to that action. We also argue that this letting relation between subject and finite can be interpreted as the subjectification of the agentive-patientive relation between the lexical verb and the sole participant in an ergative intransitive clause. The shift towards subject and finite expressing a conduciveness judgment activates an inherent agent in the conceptual base of the predicate. This means that ergative verbs are always used transitively in middles and it explains why other transitive verbs can also occur in middles. In a language like French, which marks both ergative intransitive and middle reflexively, no further extension of middle predicates is possible. By contrast, both Dutch and, more marginally, English, which do not mark middles reflexively, also allow some intransitive and compound transitive predicates to be used in the middle voice.

Have you walked the dog yet? The ergative causativization of intransitives

In this article we characterize the construction type exemplified by Have you walked the dog yet? as the causativization of an intransitive according to the ergative model. This characterization refers to the view on transitivity/ergativity in English according to which distinct transitive versus ergative semantic role configurations should be distinguished for both two- and one-participant structures. By analyzing Have you walked the dog yet? as a special case of ergative causative, its specific grammatico-semantic characteristics can be explained and the extension of the category can be delineated more sharply. We then propose that, with manner-of-motion verbs, this construction type can encode six rather different subtypes of causation. We argue that a number of long-standing questions, such as whether a circumstance of direction is obligatory or optional, and whether the relation between the participants in the process should be described by features such as volitive, coercive, or enabling, can be solved by relating them to the subtypes, rather than to the construction as a whole

The development of intensification scales in noun-intensifying uses of adjectives: sources, paths and mechanisms of change

This article is concerned with the sources, paths and mechanisms of change leading to noun-intensifying uses of adjectives, such as a complete mess, a whole bunch of crazy stuff, a particular threat. Such intensifying uses may develop from property-describing uses of adjectives, as discussed by Traugott (1989), Adamson (2000) and Paradis (2000, 2001, 2008). As pointed out by Bolinger (1972: 61), noun-intensifying uses may also develop from elements of the NP that have identifying functions, which can be either quantifying-identifying or identifying in the strict sense. The aim of this article is to provide a new synthesis of how these three pathways lead towards noun-intensifying meanings, focusing on the question of how the intensification scales necessary to these uses are acquired. We posit that the concepts of open and closed intensification scales (Kennedy & McNally 2005) can generalize over the intensifying uses from the three sources. The main mechanism of change is the foregrounding of the gradability mode (Paradis 2000), quantification scale or other implied scale of the immediate source uses. The initial shift takes place in collocational environments that overlap with those of the source uses. Due to later collocational extension, noun-intensifying uses may come to incorporate intensification scales unpredicted by their sources.

The clausal complementation of deontic-evaluative adjectives in extraposition constructions: a synchronic-diachronic approach

This article develops a functional synchronic-diachronic description of the clausal complementation of deontic-evaluative adjectives in extraposition constructions (ECs). It does so on the basis of qualitative and quantitative corpus-based analyses of the importance adjectives important, essential, crucial and the appropriateness adjectives appropriate, proper, and fitting. All six adjectives can currently take either mandative complements expressing desired action (coded by to-infinitives or that-clauses) or propositional complements describing arguable claims (typically coded by that-clauses). In reference grammars these have tended to receive incomplete coverage without elucidation of the constructional polysemies involved. We argue that a better understanding of the present system can be arrived at by investigating the diachronic developments by which it was fashioned. The ECs with these adjectives started off as mandative constructions and this continues to be their current unmarked use. They also developed patterns with propositional complements, but in this area the importance and appropriateness adjectives followed different diachronic paths, leading to distinct pragmatico-semantic readings of the pattern with single proposition in Present-day English.

Lexicalization and grammaticalization: the development of idioms and grammaticalized expressions with no question

Abstract In this article we reconstruct the paths that led to the current lexicalized and grammaticalized uses with no question. We establish that the first clausal structures to emerge were lexicalized, semi-fixed idioms with the meanings of ‘be (un)challengeable’ and ‘(not) be at issue’. These shifted to grammaticalized modal uses in Late Modern English, a positive and a negative one, which were shaped both structurally and semantically by the lexicalized uses. In Present-Day English, the two modal constructions have expanded into a full-fledged system of positive and negative modal markers which can qualify either epistemic or dynamic–deontic statements. On a more theoretical level, we propose that lexicalized items impose lexicosemantically motivated collocational and colligational relations, while grammaticalized elements come to express meaning options within grammatical systems, with specific interdependencies between the options. We argue that the adverbial no question did not emerge via ellipsis from the clausal structures, but by analogy with the set of adverbials including no doubt, without doubt, and out of doubt, which were already entrenched in Early Modern English.