Holger Diessel
List of John Benjamins publications in which Holger Diessel is involved.
Journal
ISSN 0929-998X | E‑ISSN 1569‑9765
Title
Demonstratives: Form, function and grammaticalization
Holger Diessel
All languages have demonstratives, but their form, meaning and use vary tremendously across the languages of the world. This book presents the first large-scale analysis of demonstratives from a cross-linguistic and diachronic perspective. It is based on a representative sample of 85 languages. The… read more[Typological Studies in Language, 42] 1999. xii, 205 pp.
2026 Chapter 5. Construction families and grammatical paradigms — or why the constructicon needs horizontal relations Usage-based Perspectives on Language and Language Acquisition: In honour of Heike Behrens, Madlener-Charpentier, Karin, Marjolijn H. Verspoor, Mirjam Weder and Annelies Häcki Buhofer (eds.), pp. 141–167 | Chapter
It is a standard assumption of construction grammar that grammar constitutes a network, known as the constructicon. Thus far, research on the constructicon has been mainly concerned with the taxonomic organization of grammar. However, a number of recent studies have argued that the constructicon… read more
2023 Chapter 7. Iconicity in spatial deixis: A cross-linguistic study of 180 demonstrative systems Reconnecting Form and Meaning: In honour of Kristin Davidse, Gentens, Caroline, Lobke Ghesquière, William B. McGregor and An Van linden (eds.), pp. 185–207 | Chapter
This paper presents a cross-linguistic analysis of iconicity in demonstrative systems. Several previous studies have observed that the stem vowels of demonstratives correlate with the encoding of distance (e.g. Woodworth 1991). Nevertheless, there is little systematic research on iconicity in… read more
2012 Bühler’s two-field theory of pointing and naming and the deictic origins of grammatical morphemes Grammaticalization and Language Change: New reflections, Davidse, Kristin, Tine Breban, Lieselotte Brems and Tanja Mortelmans (eds.), pp. 37–50 | Article
Current research on grammaticalization argues that grammatical markers are generally derived from content words (or lexical expressions); but earlier research by Brugmann (1904) and Bühler (1934) showed that grammatical markers are also commonly derived from (spatial) deictics (or demonstratives).… read more
2009 On the role of frequency and similarity in the acquisition of subject and non-subject relative clauses Syntactic Complexity: Diachrony, acquisition, neuro-cognition, evolution, Givón, T. and Masayoshi Shibatani (eds.), pp. 251–276 | Article
Frequency and similarity are important determinants for the acquisition of children’s early item-based constructions. This paper argues that frequency and similarity are equally important for the development of more complex and intricate grammatical phenomena such as relative clauses. Specifically,… read more
2006 Review of Plank (): Noun Phrase Structure in the Languages of Europe Studies in Language 30:1, pp. 195–200 | Review
2003 The relationship between demonstratives and interrogatives Studies in Language 27:3, pp. 635–655 | Article
This paper examines two types of expressions that seem to exist in all languages, demonstratives and interrogatives. Based on a representative sample of 100 languages it is shown that demonstratives and interrogatives have some striking features in common. They cross-cut the boundaries of several… read more
1999 Verb-First Constructions in German Lexical and Syntactical Constructions and the Construction of Meaning: Proceedings of the bi-annual ICLA meeting in Albuquerque, July 1995, Verspoor, Marjolijn H., Kee Dong Lee and Eve Sweetser (eds.), pp. 51–68 | Article