This article explores the grammaticalisation of the grammar category of definite articles. It explains that the grammaticalisation process that leads to the development of articles which exhibits cross-linguistic regularities. In most cases, the definite article originates from a weakened demonstrative, while the indefinite article derives from the unity numeral ‘one’. This article also discusses the morphosyntactic role of noun marker or noun phrase marker in the grammaticalisation of definite articles.
A grammaticalization process, by which an item shifts from lexicon to grammar, is by definition a cline or a continuum. Consequently, items undergoing grammaticalization processes can occupy different positions on the cline between its two extremes. The main claim we want to argue for in this thematic issue is that the same idea of gradation can be extended to language typology, by showing that, within a language family, comparable grammaticalization phenomena can be at the outset or on-going in one language and have reached a stage further down the cline in another language, or even that grammaticalization phenomena present in one language may be absent in the other one. Thus, with respect to Romance, several authors, such as
This article analyses the variation in degrees of grammaticalisation across languages. It proposes the hypothesis that an essential property of grammaticalisation also applies within a genealogical family and that several grammaticalization processes may be more advanced in one language than in the other languages of the same family. It provides evidence from three Romance languages and shows that French, has reached a further stage of grammaticalisation than Spanish and Italian.
Le présent article porte sur l’origine diachronique de deux emplois modaux de l’imparfait : l’emploi hypothétique dans les constructions en si et l’emploi contrefactuel. Après avoir établi que ces deux tours existaient dès l’ancien français où ils correspondaient à deux emplois distincts de l’imparfait dans la protase et l’apodose de constructions hypothétiques, nous retraçons le développement de ces deux tours en latin. Il apparaît alors que l’introduction de l’imparfait dans les hypothétiques est étroitement liée à l’érosion sémantique des formes subjonctives. Il semble aussi que l’association croissante de l’imparfait avec les valeurs de contrefactualité et de distanciation a entraîné un affaiblissement progressif de sa valeur aspectuo-temporelle. Enfin, nous suggérons d’analyser cette évolution comme illustrant le passage du stade des « bridging contexts » à celui des « switch contexts » décrit dans le modèle du changement sémantique de Heine (2002).
Walter De Mulder: La linguistique diachronique, la grammaticalisation et la sémantique du prototype
The only objective of this text is to offer a general presentation of the research on grammaticalization and of diachronic prototype semantics. After a brief reminder of the history of the studies on grammaticalization, it presents the "parameters of grammaticalization" of Lehmann. Then, it turns to the way research of grammaticalization has tried to account for the semantic evolution of the grammaticalized elements, first in terms of metaphoric transfers, then in terms of contextual reinterpretation and metonymy, and, finally, on the basis of the general hypothesis of subjectification. The second part of the article presents the way prototype semantics can be used to analyze semantic change, starting from an article by Peter Koch and the book on diachronic prototype semantics by Dirk Geeraerts.
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