Toril Swan

The grammaticalization and subjectification of adverbial - ing clauses (converb clauses) in English

The present article discusses the development of adverbial - ing clauses, so-called ‘converb clauses’, in English. We argue that Middle English does not have a category of truly subordinate adverbial clauses in - ing , but that such clauses have developed on the basis of semi-coordinate - ing clauses denoting an accompanying circumstance or exemplification/specification. In the course of the Middle English period, such clauses began to be reinterpreted as clauses expressing adverbial relations such as time, condition, cause, purpose, etc. Another likely source of converb clauses is participial relative clauses. We see the development of converb clauses as an instance of grammaticalization, as it involves the development of a grammatical means of expressing a rhetorical function, viz. the ‘Nucleus-Satellite’ relation (Mathiessen & Thompson 1988). This grammaticalization process also involves subjectification, given that the source constructions are propositional, while time and cause clauses have textual and expressive functions/meanings. The grammaticalization process was probably also fed by other participial structures – notably the progressive and the gerund, which were being grammaticalized at the same time – and also nonclausal adverbial structures.

Metaphors of Body and Mind in the History of English

The present paper will investigate the role of the body in the conceptualization of human mental qualities and emotions, in particular focusing on the heart as a cultural concept in the history of English. The historical data are taken from the Helsinki Corpus and dictionaries (mainly the Oxford English Dictionary, hereafter abbreviated OED) as well as Internet sources. In addition, the romance The Old English Apollonius of Tyre was examined. In Section 1, I introduce the general framework and perspectives of the present work, namely the cognitive theory of metaphor, and the role of the body in cognitive linguistics. Section 2 discusses two pervasive types of ‘‘dualism’’ which are involved in our conceptions of mental and physical entities and permeate our language; Section 2.1 deals with the dichotomy body as opposed to the mind, or soul, while Section 2.2 discusses the conceptualization of what is seen as the non-body part of human beings. Section 3 presents data and discusses uses of heart metaphors in the history of English; Section 3.1 provides a general introduction, and in Sections 3.2 and 3.3 we look at heart metaphor data from Old English and Middle/Early Modern English respectively. Section 4 sums up and concludes.

From Manner to Subject Modification: Adverbialization in English

The paper discusses the process of adverbialization in English, focusing on one type of adverb, subject-modifier adverbs such as sadly, thoughtfully and pinkly . It is also shown that the - ly suffix in English (unlike its cognates in the other Germanic languages) has become an extremely versatile adverb suffix. Finally, it is argued that in English, the manner adverb category is prototypical, whereas other adverb types, notably subject-modifier adverbs, are less central adverbs.

English Sentence Adverbials in a Discourse and Cognitive Perspective

In an earlier work published in 1988, Toril Swan investigated the development of sentence adverbials (from lesser-scope adverbials such as manner adverbials) in the history of English, specifically in terms of their being grammaticalizations of what has been called speaker comments. The present article pursues a topic that was merely touched on in Swans longitudinal study, namely the historical evolution of discourse and cognitive functions of sentence adverbials. Over the centuries these linguistic forms have moved into initial position, becoming foregrounded. We examine the implications of our data with particular reference to speaker perspective and discourse organization. It is argued that the reason why English has developed a large class of sentence adverbials that gravitate towards initial position must be sought in discourse organization and cognitive factors.