Evidentiality, Modality and Grammaticalization
Edited by Eric Mélac
Special issue of Studies in Language 48:3 (2024) v, 240 pp.
Eric Mélac
List of John Benjamins publications in which Eric Mélac is involved.
Titles
The Functions of Evidentiality
Edited by Eric Mélac and Pascale Leclercq
Special issue of Functions of Language 31:1 (2024) v, 114 pp.
2026 Grammaticalization vs. Diachronic Construction Grammar: A reappraisal Studies in Language 50:2, pp. 471–508 | Article
In some work based on the framework of Diachronic Construction Grammar, a branch of Construction Grammar (e.g. Croft 2001; Goldberg 2006), it has been argued that phenomena traditionally classified as instances of grammaticalization should not be considered as belonging to a distinct field of… read more
2025 Emerging inferentials in English? A study of the evolving uses of the present perfect and have to Today’s Innovations, Tomorrow’s Conventions: Usage-based approaches to incipient developments in English, Lorenz, David and David Tizón-Couto (eds.), pp. 105–130 | Article
This paper investigates the evolution of the present perfect and have to in English to assess whether these forms may be considered emerging inferentials. Combining quantitative and qualitative analyses in diachrony and synchrony, it argues that the two forms may show incipient signs of the… read more
2024 The links between evidentiality, modality, and grammaticalization: Position paper Evidentiality, Modality and Grammaticalization, Mélac, Eric (ed.), pp. 513–542 | Article
This paper introduces the main notions that are addressed in this special issue, namely evidentiality, modality, and grammaticalization. It defines each notion and briefly synthesizes the literature. It also presents some of the controversies which surround the ideas that prevail in these… read more
2024 Evidentiality as a grammaticalization passenger: An investigation of evidential developments in Tibetic languages and beyond Evidentiality, Modality and Grammaticalization, Mélac, Eric (ed.), pp. 638–681 | Article
This article investigates the grammaticalization patterns of evidentiality from a cross-linguistic perspective with a focus on Lhasa Tibetan. It documents the history of the evidential morphemes ’dug, -song, -bzhag, and =ze from Old Literary Tibetan to modern spoken Lhasa Tibetan. Our analyses… read more
2024 The functions of evidentiality The Functions of Evidentiality, Mélac, Eric and Pascale Leclercq (eds.), pp. 1–15 | Introduction
2021 Second language acquisition of evidentiality in French and English in a narrative task Language, Interaction and Acquisition 12:2, pp. 251–283 | Article
Evidentiality, i.e. the linguistic encoding of the mode of access to information (direct perception, inference, hearsay), despite not being fully grammaticalized in English and French, is expressed through a variety of means. This paper seeks to determine how a relatively non-salient concept in… read more