Grammaticalization of Near from Adjective to Preposition via Head-Movement, Gradability Declination and Structural Reanalysis

Abstract

In English, there are a couple of words whose categorial status is murky, the most notable of which is near. It is sometimes referred to as a preposition (Svenonius (2010)), as a transitive adjective (Maling (1983)), or as an intransitive adjective whose PP complement happens to be filled by an empty P (Kayne (2005)). The first aim of this article is to show that the three analyses are all correct synchronically in that they represent a different stage of grammaticalization on the cline from transitive adjective to intransitive adjective to preposition, on the basis of the newly discovered fact (i) that the semantic gradability of near began a sharp declination from the late 19th century, (ii) that its morphological compatibility with the preposition to also began a sharp declination from the same period, and (iii) that its collocation with the adverb right became possible around the same period, among others. The second aim of this article is to provide a syntactic analysis of the grammaticalization of near, with recourse to the insights put forth by Waters (2009) as to the grammaticalization of inside from N to Axial Part to P.

Comparison of the Verb of Motion GO in English and Chinese in Terms of Grammaticalization

“…To express the meaning of 'go somewhere to do something', the VP-qu order is possible only when qu stands alone, without any argument or modifier. This fact is in harmony with the clear asymmetry between the two tokens of qu in the qu-VP-qu construction, as seen in ( 38) to (40). Therefore, we can safely conclude that qu in the VP-qu 'VP-go' construction is also grammaticalized to a semi-lexical verb of motion.…”

“…First, take into account the possibility of argument realization and adjunct modification with qu. As shown in (38)(39)(40), when an adjunct and/or argument are inserted in the double qu construction, (38b, c), (39b, c), and (40b, c) are not as acceptable as (38a), (39a), and (40a), respectively. If both the first and second tokens of qu are bona-fide lexical verbs, either of them should be able to be modified by zo ˇu 'walk', feikuai 'quickly' and be able to take the argument shu dian 'bookstore'.…”

“…The two morphosyntactic options for qu exist precisely because of the semi-lexical nature of the verb, as is commonly assumed to be possible for an element in the process of grammaticalization (Simpson and Wu (2001), Roberts and Roussou (2003), Nishiyama and Ogawa (2014), Ogawa (2014Ogawa ( , 2022Ogawa ( , 2023).…”

Hyvin edessä, ihan yläpuolella, melkein vierellä – Mitä astemääritteet kertovat akseligrammien semantiikasta

“…Astemääritteen kanssa esiintymisen kannalta olennainen piirre grammien merkityksessä on skalaarisuus: hahmotetaanko grammin kuvaama relaatio tavalla tai toisella asteittaiseksi vai ei (ks. Kennedy & McNally 2005, Ogawa 2014, Talmy 2017: 315-316, Huumo 2019a. Adjektiivien tapaan grammien skalaarisuus voi olla luonteeltaan joko avointa tai sulkeista.…”