Title: Interface interactions in the English iterative cycle
Source document: Linguistica Brunensia. 2017, vol. 65, iss. 1, pp. 51-65
Extent
51-65
-
ISSN1803-7410 (print)2336-4440 (online)
Stable URL (handle): https://hdl.handle.net/11222.digilib/136657
Type: Article
Language
License: Not specified license
Notice: These citations are automatically created and might not follow citation rules properly.
Abstract(s)
This paper investigates the cyclical interaction between the adverb again and its predecessor eft ('again' in Old and Middle English) by focusing on the semantics-syntax interface in change. Building on the results of recent corpus studies it is argued that having both a structural and a lexical analysis at disposal makes correct predictions for both adverbs. Second, for the area at hand (viz. when the two adverbs are considered in tandem rather than individually), it is argued that pursuing the two-track analysis on a broader basis than had been done previously accounts for facts that so far have remained unexplained in the appearance of the adverb eft. Specifically, the paper explores the idea that two types of semantic analysis suggested for the so-called decompositional adverbs may be available not only transitioning one another, but also systematically during one and the same historical time span. Third, further new observations are made as to why again may have won the competition at the expense of a well-established adverb in the history of English. The relevant observations hinge on clearer conditions for the winning competitor at the syntax-semantics interface.
References
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[2] Beck, Sigrid – Berezovskaya, Polina – Pflugfelder, Katja. 2009. The use of 'again' in 19th century English versus Present-Day English. Syntax 12, pp. 193–214.
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[14] Hackl, Martin. 2009. On the grammar and processing of proportional quantifiers: most versus more than half. Natural Language Semantics 17, pp. 63–98. | DOI 10.1007/s11050-008-9039-x
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[21] Kroch, Anthony – Taylor, Ann – Ringe, Donald. 2000. The Middle English verb-second constraint: A case study in language contact and language change. In: Herring, Susan et al., eds. Textual Parameters in Old Language. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, pp. 353–391.
[22] Merchant, Jason. 2001. The Syntax of Silence: Sluicing, Islands, and the Theory of Ellipsis. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
[23] Maienborn, Claudia – Schäfer, Martin. 2011. Adverbs and adverbials. In: von Heusinger, Klaus et al., eds. The Handbook of Semantics. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 1390–1420.
[24] Marušič, Franc – Žaucer, Rok. 2016. The modal cycle vs. negation in Slovenian. In: Marušič, Franc – Žaucer, Rok, eds. Formal Studies in Slovenian Syntax: In Honor of Janez Orešnik, pp. 167–192.
[25] Oh, Sei-Rang. 2015. A crosslinguistic semantic analysis of again. Studies in Generative Grammar 25, pp. 851–872. | DOI 10.15860/sigg.25.4.201511.851
[26] Patel-Grosz, Pritty – Beck, Sigrid. 2014. Revisiting again: The view from Kutchi Gujarati. In: Etxeberria, Urtzi et al., eds. Proceedings of Sinn & Bedeutung 2013, pp. 303–321.
[27] Pedersen, Walter. 2015. A scalar analysis of again-ambiguities. Journal of Semantics 32, pp. 373–424. | DOI 10.1093/jos/ffu003
[28] Pintzuk, Susan – Kroch, Anthony. 1989. The rightward movement of complements and adjuncts in the Old English of Beowulf. Language Variation and Change 1, pp. 115–143. | DOI 10.1017/S095439450000003X
[29] Rapp, Irene – Stechow, Arnim von. 1999. Fast 'almost' and the visibility parameter for functional adverbs. Journal of Semantics 16, pp. 149–204. | DOI 10.1093/jos/16.2.149
[30] Schwarz, Florian. 2016. Presuppositions, projection, and accommodation - Theoretical issues and experimental approaches. Ms., University of Pennsylvania.
[31] Stechow, Arnim von. 1995. Lexical decomposition in syntax. In: Egli, Urs et al., eds. The Lexicon in the Organization of Language. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, pp. 81–118.
[32] Wallage, Philip. 2013. Functional differentiation and grammatical competition in the English Jespersen cycle. Journal of Historical Syntax 2, pp. 1–25
[33] Willis, David – Lucas, Christopher – Breitbarth, Anne, eds. 2013. The History of Negation in the Languages of Europe and the Mediterranean. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
[34] Zwarts, Joost. 2015. From 'back' to 'again' in Dutch: The structure of the 're' domain. Ms., OTS Utrecht.
[2] Beck, Sigrid – Berezovskaya, Polina – Pflugfelder, Katja. 2009. The use of 'again' in 19th century English versus Present-Day English. Syntax 12, pp. 193–214.
[3] Beck, Sigrid – Gergel, Remus. 2015. The diachronic semantics of English again. Natural Language Semantics 23, pp. 157–203. | DOI 10.1007/s11050-015-9111-2
[4] Birner, Betty J. 2012. Introduction to Pragmatics. Oxford: Blackwell.
[5] Csirmaz, Anikó. 2015. Re Hungarian again. Acta Linguistica Hungarica 62, pp. 263–295. | DOI 10.1556/064.2015.62.3.2
[6] Eckardt, Regine. 2009. APO: Avoid Pragmatic Overload. In: Visconti, Jacqueline – Mosegard Hansen, Maj-Britt, eds. Current Trends in Diachronic Semantics and Pragmatics. London: Emerald, pp. 21–42.
[7] Fabricius-Hansen, Cathrine. 2001. Wi(e)der and again(st). In: Féry, Caroline – Sternefeld, Wolfgang, eds. Audiatur Vox Sapientiae: a festschrift for Arnim von Stechow. Berlin: Akademie, pp. 101–130.
[8] Fischer, Olga et al. 2000. The Syntax of Early English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[9] Gelderen, Elly van, ed. 2016. Cyclical Change Continued. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
[10] Gergel, Remus. 2016. Modality and gradation: comparing the sequel of developments in 'rather' and 'eher'. In: Gelderen (2016), pp. 319–350.
[11] Gergel, Remus – Beck, Sigrid. 2015. Early Modern English again: a corpus study and semantic analysis. English Language and Linguistics 19, pp. 27–47. | DOI 10.1017/S1360674314000355
[12] Gergel, Remus – Blümel, Andreas – Kopf, Martin. 2016. Another heavy road of decompositionality: notes from a dying adverb. U. Penn Working Papers in Linguistics 22, pp. 109–118.
[13] Gergel, Remus – Stateva, Penka. 2014. A decompositional analysis of almost: Diachronic and experimental comparative evidence. Pre-Proceedings of Linguistic Evidence 2014. Tübingen, pp. 150–156.
[14] Hackl, Martin. 2009. On the grammar and processing of proportional quantifiers: most versus more than half. Natural Language Semantics 17, pp. 63–98. | DOI 10.1007/s11050-008-9039-x
[15] Haeberli, Eric. 2002. Inflectional morphology and the loss of verb second in English. In: Lightfoot, David, ed. Syntactic Effects of Morphological Change, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 88–106.
[16] Jäger, Gerhard – Blutner, Reinhard. 2000. Against lexical decomposition in syntax. In: Wyner, Adam Zachary, ed. Proceedings of the Israeli Association for Theoretical Linguistics 15, pp. 113–137.
[17] Johnson, Kyle. 2004. How to be quiet. Proceedings from the Annual Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society 40(2), pp. 1–20).
[18] Klein, Wolfgang. 2001. Time and again. In: Féry, Caroline – Sternefeld, Wolfgang, eds. Audiatur Vox Sapientiae: a festschrift for Arnim von Stechow. Berlin: Akademie, pp. 267–286.
[19] Kroch, Anthony – Santorini, Beatrice – Delfs, Lauren. 2004. The Penn-Helsinki Parsed Corpus of Early Modern English.
[20] Kroch, Anthony – Taylor, Ann. 2000. The Penn-Helsinki Parsed Corpus of Middle English.
[21] Kroch, Anthony – Taylor, Ann – Ringe, Donald. 2000. The Middle English verb-second constraint: A case study in language contact and language change. In: Herring, Susan et al., eds. Textual Parameters in Old Language. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, pp. 353–391.
[22] Merchant, Jason. 2001. The Syntax of Silence: Sluicing, Islands, and the Theory of Ellipsis. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
[23] Maienborn, Claudia – Schäfer, Martin. 2011. Adverbs and adverbials. In: von Heusinger, Klaus et al., eds. The Handbook of Semantics. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 1390–1420.
[24] Marušič, Franc – Žaucer, Rok. 2016. The modal cycle vs. negation in Slovenian. In: Marušič, Franc – Žaucer, Rok, eds. Formal Studies in Slovenian Syntax: In Honor of Janez Orešnik, pp. 167–192.
[25] Oh, Sei-Rang. 2015. A crosslinguistic semantic analysis of again. Studies in Generative Grammar 25, pp. 851–872. | DOI 10.15860/sigg.25.4.201511.851
[26] Patel-Grosz, Pritty – Beck, Sigrid. 2014. Revisiting again: The view from Kutchi Gujarati. In: Etxeberria, Urtzi et al., eds. Proceedings of Sinn & Bedeutung 2013, pp. 303–321.
[27] Pedersen, Walter. 2015. A scalar analysis of again-ambiguities. Journal of Semantics 32, pp. 373–424. | DOI 10.1093/jos/ffu003
[28] Pintzuk, Susan – Kroch, Anthony. 1989. The rightward movement of complements and adjuncts in the Old English of Beowulf. Language Variation and Change 1, pp. 115–143. | DOI 10.1017/S095439450000003X
[29] Rapp, Irene – Stechow, Arnim von. 1999. Fast 'almost' and the visibility parameter for functional adverbs. Journal of Semantics 16, pp. 149–204. | DOI 10.1093/jos/16.2.149
[30] Schwarz, Florian. 2016. Presuppositions, projection, and accommodation - Theoretical issues and experimental approaches. Ms., University of Pennsylvania.
[31] Stechow, Arnim von. 1995. Lexical decomposition in syntax. In: Egli, Urs et al., eds. The Lexicon in the Organization of Language. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, pp. 81–118.
[32] Wallage, Philip. 2013. Functional differentiation and grammatical competition in the English Jespersen cycle. Journal of Historical Syntax 2, pp. 1–25
[33] Willis, David – Lucas, Christopher – Breitbarth, Anne, eds. 2013. The History of Negation in the Languages of Europe and the Mediterranean. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
[34] Zwarts, Joost. 2015. From 'back' to 'again' in Dutch: The structure of the 're' domain. Ms., OTS Utrecht.