Cover not available

In:Diachronic Construction Grammar
Edited by Jóhanna Barðdal, Elena Smirnova, Lotte Sommerer and Spike Gildea
[Constructional Approaches to Language 18] 2015
► pp. 139–172

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
authorization required

Irregular morphology in regular syntactic patterns

A case of constructional re-alignment

 | Charles University, Prague
Published online: 30 July 2015
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/cal.18.05fri
In exploring the multi-dimensional and incremental nature of grammatical change that emerges from the recurrent interaction between a form and its environment, this study demonstrates that a systematic examination of morphological irregularity can enrich our understanding of the anatomy of grammatical change. The empirical focus is the functional crystallization of a particular type of participial adjective (PA) in Old Czech, as manifested in morphologically irregular tokens of this category. The analysis of their behavior vis-à-vis the regular PAs in comparable environments (clausal vs. adnominal constructions) shows that the two formation types are both sensitive to roughly the same set of features in developing a different functional status (secondary predicate vs. adnominal modifier), but each ‘compensates’ for the mismatch between its morphology and each syntactic function in a characteristically different way. At the theoretical level, the analysis leads toward clarifying the content of the notion ‘constructionalization’ as a hypothetically distinct type of change, and offers some thoughts on spelling out the role of constructions in grammatical reorganization.
References (21)
References
Aarts, B. (2007). Syntactic gradience: The nature of syntactic indeterminacy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Brinton, L.J., & Traugott, E.C. (2005). Lexicalization and language change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Croft, W. (2001). Radical Construction Grammar: Syntactic theory in typological perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fillmore, C.J. (1988). The mechanisms of ‘Construction Grammar’. Berkeley Linguistics Society, 14, 35–55. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (1989). Grammatical construction theory and the familiar dichotomies. In R. Dietrich, & C.F. Graumann (Eds.), Language processing in social context (pp. 17–38). Amsterdam: North-Holland/Elsevier. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fried, M. (2007). A frame semantic account of morphosemantic change: the case of Old Czech věřící . In D. Divjak, & A. Kochanska (Eds.), Cognitive paths into the Slavic domain (pp. 283–315). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2008). Constructions and constructs: Mapping a shift between predication and attribution. In A. Bergs, & G. Diewald (Eds.), Constructions and language change (pp. 47–79). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. (2010). Grammaticalization and lexicalization effects in participial morphology: A Construction Grammar approach to language change. In A. Van linden, J.-Ch. Verstraete, & K. Davidse (Eds.), Formal evidence in grammaticalization research (pp. 191–224). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fried, M., & Östman, J.-O. (2004). Construction Grammar: A thumbnail sketch. In M. Fried, & J.-O. Östman (Eds.), Construction Grammar in a cross-language perspective (pp. 11–86). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Himmelmann, N.P. (2004). Lexicalization and grammaticalization: Opposite or orthogonal? In W. Bisang, N. Himmelmann, & B. Wiemer (Eds.), What makes grammaticalization? A look from its fringes and its components (pp. 19–40). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hopper, P.J., & Traugott, E.C. (1993). Grammaticalization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kurz, J. (1958). K otázce doby vzniku slovanských adjektiv složených a jejich původního významu [On the origin of Slavic ‘long’ adjectives and their initial meaning]. In Studie ze slovanské jazykovědy, sborník k 70. narozeninám akademika Fr. Trávníčka (pp. 211–219). Praha: SPN.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Marvan, J., Michálek, E., & Němec, I. (1963). Základní procesy v lexikálním vývoji českého jazyka [Basic processes in the lexical development of Czech]. In Čs. přednášky pro V. mezinárodní sjezd slavistů v Sofii (pp. 105−113). Praha: Nakladatelství ČSAV.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Michálek, E. (1963). Staročeská adjektiva typu lácí, lajúcí [Old Czech adjectives of the type lácí, lajúcí ]. Listy filologické, 86, 127–130.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rosenbach, A. (2010). How synchronic gradience makes sense in the light of language change (and vice versa). In E.C. Traugott, & G. Trousdale (Eds.), Gradience, gradualness and grammaticalization (pp. 149–179). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Staročeský slovník [Old Czech Dictionary]. (1968). Praha: Academia.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Traugott, E.C. (2008). The grammaticalization of NP of NP patterns. In A. Bergs, & G. Diewald (Eds.), Constructions and language change (pp. 21–34). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Traugott, E.C., & Trousdale, G. (2010). Introduction. In E.C. Traugott, & G. Trousdale (Eds.), Gradience, gradualness and grammaticalization (pp. 1–18). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Trousdale, G. (2010). Issues in constructional approaches to grammaticalization in English. In K. Stathi, E. Gehweiler, & E. König (Eds.), Grammaticalization: Current views and issues (pp. 51–72). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vogel, P.M. (2000). Grammaticalisation and part-of-speech systems. In P.M. Vogel, & B. Comrie (Eds.), Approaches to the typology of word classes (pp. 259–284). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vondrák, V. (1908). O místě atributivního adjektiva a substantivního genitivu ve větě [On the position of attributive adjectives and adnominal genitives in the sentence]. In Zbornik u slavu Vatroslava Jagica (pp. 151–158). Berlin: Weidmannsche Buchhandlung.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (6)

Cited by six other publications

Gildea, Spike & Jóhanna Barðdal
2023. From grammaticalization to Diachronic Construction Grammar. Studies in Language 47:4 ► pp. 743 ff. DOI logo
Torres-Martínez, Sergio
2023. The semiotics of motion encoding in Early English: a cognitive semiotic analysis of phrasal verbs in Old and Middle English. Semiotica 2023:251 ► pp. 55 ff. DOI logo
Herbst, Thomas & Judith Huber
2022. Diachronic Construction Grammar – Introductory Remarks to This Special Issue. Zeitschrift für Anglistik und Amerikanistik 70:3 ► pp. 213 ff. DOI logo
Hartmann, Stefan
2021. Diachronic Cognitive Linguistics. Yearbook of the German Cognitive Linguistics Association 9:1 ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo
Kuo, Yueh Hsin
2020. Reinforcement by realignment in diachronic construction grammar. Constructions and Frames 12:2 ► pp. 206 ff. DOI logo
Johnson, Cynthia A., Peter Alexander Kerkhof, Leonid Kulikov, Esther Le Mair & Jóhanna Barðdal
2019. Argument structure, conceptual metaphor and semantic change. Diachronica 36:4 ► pp. 463 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 15 november 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue