In:The Functional Perspective on Language and Discourse: Applications and implications
Edited by María de los Ángeles Gómez González, Francisco José Ruiz de Mendoza Ibáñez, Francisco Gonzálvez-García and Angela Downing
[Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 247] 2014
► pp. 149–168
How did we think?
Published online: 16 May 2014
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.247.08jan
https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.247.08jan
This paper presents a diachronic corpus investigation into the Dutch mental
state predicate denken ‘think’. It investigates both the semantic development
(specifically, the evolution in the non-attitudinal vs. the attitudinal meanings of
the verb) and the grammatical development (the evolution in terms of the types
of grammatical patterns with which the verb appears), and the correlations
between the two, from Old Dutch onwards. The discussion focuses specifically
on the implications for our understanding of the processes of grammaticalisation
and subjectification, and their correlations: the verb shows clear signs of a
process of semantic subjectification, but not of structural grammaticalisation,
hence it offers evidence for the assumption that these two processes are less
intimately intertwined than is often assumed in the literature.
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