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Article published In: Diachronica
Vol. 34:1 (2017) ► pp.1–39

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Competing modal periphrases in Spanish between the 16th and the 18th centuries

A diachronic variationist approach

 | Universitat Jaume I (Castellón)
 | Universitat Jaume I (Castellón)
Published online: 25 April 2017
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https://doi.org/10.1075/dia.34.1.01bla
Abstract
The history of Spanish modal constructions has been widely discussed in the literature, focusing primarily on the semantic differences between the available alternatives. This paper offers an innovative analysis of the evolution of these constructions by adopting a diachronic variationist approach that takes into account a wider range of semantic, syntactic, morphological and stylistic factors that influence the choice between the competing modal periphrases during two key stages in the evolution of Spanish. The data is drawn from a diachronic corpus of personal correspondence, reflecting actual language usage during the respective periods as closely as possible. Particular attention is paid to the question of whether the influence of different factor groups remains stable over time or not, and it is shown that the most frequent form – context pairings are particularly resistant to innovation. This can be explained by cognitive entrenchment of the respective variant in specific linguistic environments.
Résumé
On a examiné en profondeur l’histoire des constructions modales en espagnol, en se concentrant essentiellement sur les différences sémantiques entre les alternatives disponibles. Cette communication propose une analyse innovatrice de l’évolution de ces constructions en adoptant une approche diachronique centrée sur la variation, qui prend en considération un ensemble élargi de facteurs sémantiques, syntaxiques, morphologiques et stylistiques ayant influencé le choix entre les périphrases modales en compétition lors des deux étapes-clés de l’évolution de l’espagnol. Les données de l’analyse sont tirées d’un corpus diachronique de correspondance privée, reflétant aussi précisément que possible l’usage réel et courant de la langue pendant les deux périodes données. On porte une attention particulière à la question de la stabilité de l’influence de ces groupes de facteurs différents, et on démontre que les paires forme-contexte les plus fréquentes sont particulièrement résistantes à toute innovation. Ceci pourrait s’expliquer par la stabilité cognitive de chaque variante dans des environnements linguistiques spécifiques.
Zusammenfassung
Die Geschichte der spanischen Modalkonstruktionen ist in der Fachliteratur eingehend beschrieben worden, wobei sich gewöhnlich das Augenmerk besonders auf die semantischen Unterschiede zwischen den verfügbaren Alternativen richtet. Der vorliegende Beitrag untersucht die historische Entwicklung dieser Konstruktionen in einer variationslinguistischen Analyse, in der verschiedene semantische, syntaktische, morphologische und stilistische Faktoren identifiziert werden, welche die Wahl zwischen den konkurrierenden Modalperiphrasen während zweier wichtiger Etappen der spanischen Sprachgeschichte beeinflussen. Die Daten der Studie stammen aus einem diachronischen Korpus aus privaten Briefen und ähnlich persönlichen Dokumenten, die den tatsächlichen, alltäglichen Sprachgebrauch so genau wie möglich widerspiegeln. Besondere Aufmerksamkeit gilt der Frage, ob der Einfluss verschiedener Faktorengruppen zeitlich stabil ist. Es zeigt sich, dass die am häufigsten vorkommenden Form-Kontext-Paare besonders veränderungsresistent sind, was sich auf kognitives entrenchment der betreffenden Variante in bestimmten sprachlichen Kontexten zurückführen lässt.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The origin and evolution of the periphrases with haber, tener and deber as auxiliary verb
  • 3.The corpus
  • 4.Distribution of the periphrases in the corpus
    • 4.1General observations
    • 4.2Semantic values
    • 4.3Distribution of the periphrases according to their semantic values
  • 5.Coding and methodology
    • Linguistic factors
    • Extralinguistic factors
  • 6.Results and analysis
    • 6.1Patterns of continuity
      • 6.1.1Type of deontic modality
      • 6.1.2Person and number
      • 6.1.3Tense/mood
      • 6.1.4Clausal polarity and type
      • 6.1.5Stylistic and register variation
      • 6.1.6Discourse factors: The priming effect
    • 6.2Diverging patterns of variation
      • 6.2.1Syntactic (im)personality
      • 6.2.2Agentivity
      • 6.2.3Assertiveness/intensification
      • 6.2.4Clause type
  • 7.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
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