faculty of arts university of groningen the diachrony of derivation muriel norde
TRANSCRIPT
Faculty of Arts University of Groningen
THE DIACHRONY OF DERIVATIONMuriel Norde
AIMS
• To contribute to a better understanding of the derivation – inflection interface by discussing the origins of derivational and inflectional morphology
• To examine the implications of the diachronic findings for grammaticalization theory
OUTLINE
• Derivation vs. inflection: synchronic observations
• The origins and development of derivational and inflectional morphology
• Transitions from derivation to inflection and vice versa
• Theoretical discussion
SYNCHRONIC OBSERVATIONS
1. Obligatoriness
2. Lexicon vs. syntax
3. The ability to change word-class
4. Cumulative exponence
DERIVATION VS. INFLECTION
• obligatoriness– derivation: ; inflection:
the duckling was swimmingthe duck was swimming*the duckling was swim(but: femine suffix may be
(semantically) obligatory:the lioness / *lion gave birth to two
cubs)
DERIVATION VS. INFLECTION
• part of syntax– derivation: ; inflection:
The prince is lazy / Prinsen är latThe princess is lazy / Prinsessan är latThe princes are lazy / Prinsarna är lata(Subj-V concord) / (N-Adj concord)
(but: feminine derivational suffixes may affect concord)
la lionne / *lion est grandede boerin / *boer (/ vrouw) d’r klompen)
DERIVATION VS. INFLECTION
• The ability to change word-class– derivation: ; inflection:
beauty (N) > beautiful (Adj)great (Adj) > greatness (N)(but: some inflectional suffixes may
change word-class
The singVingADJ detective
Hon sjunger vackerADJtADV
‘She sings beautifully’ (-t = NEUT.SG)
DERIVATION VS. INFLECTION
• Cumulative exponence (portmanteau morphemes)– derivation:; inflection:
IE nominal suffixes, e.g. Lat. –us in servus: simultaneous realizations of gender, number and case
(but: feminine derivational suffixes may be cumulative:
vend-re vend-eur vend-euse
V V-AGENT V-AGENT-
FEMALE)
CONCLUSION
• Fuzzy boundaries• Derivation and inflection form a continuum
(Dalton-Puffer 1996):
lexical > derivational-lexical (e.g. lovely) > derivational-grammatical (e.g. patiently) > inflectional
(Booij 2002):
lexical > derivational > inherently inflectional (e.g. participle suffixes) > contextual inflectional
DIACHRONY: GRAMMATICALIZATION
• “Grammaticalization consists in the increase of the range of a morpheme advancing from a lexical to a grammatical or from a less grammatical to a more grammatical status.” (Kuryłowicz 1975 [1965]
• “[…] an evolution whereby linguistic units lose in semantic complexity, pragmatic significance, syntactic freedom, and phonetic substance […]”(Heine & Reh 1984
DIACHRONY: CLINES
• The cline of grammaticalitycontent item > grammatical word > clitic > inflectional affix
mot (N) > mot (P)
‘meeting’ > ‘against’
hin > in > -in DEMONSTRATIVE > CLITIC > DEFINITE SUFFIX
• The cline of lexicalitypart of phrase > part of compound > derivational affix
manz lik > man(z)lik > manlig
‘a man’s body’ > ‘man’s body’ > ‘masculine’
OTHER ORIGINS
• Not all grammatical change is grammaticalization!
• inflectional suffixes: e.g. rebracketing
OSw. æple – æple – æple-na
‘apple – apples - the apples’
(PL suffix –ø)
MoSw. äpple – äpple-n – äpplen-a
(PL suffix –n)• derivational suffixes: e.g. clitics
WHERE DO THEY GO?
Derivational affixes• fossilize
– PGmc –m to derive agent nouns from verbs: bloem ‘flower’, storm ‘storm’, helm ‘helmet’ (cf. MoDu verbs bloeien ‘to bloom’, storen ‘to disturb’, helen ‘(older): ‘to cover’)
• lexicalize– Fascism and other isms– Juices and ades (< Lemonade)
• degrammaticalize– Du tig ‘umpteen’ (< -tig ‘ty’ as in twintig ’20’ etc.)
• become inflectional
WHERE DO THEY GO?
Inflectional affixes:• become –ø
– most nominal and verbal suffixes in English
• fossilize (hardly)– Du schoen (< PL of schoe ‘shoe’)
• degrammaticalize– Eng / ContScand enclitic s-genitive
• do not lexicalize• become derivational
FROM DERIVATION TO INFLECTION
• Proto-Scand *sik ‘self’ > enclitic sk > Old Norse derivational –st > MoScand inflectional –s(t) – Evidence for derivational status, e.g.
word-class changing st-verbs in ON, e.g. V fyrnast ‘age, become older’ < Adj forn ‘old’
• English adverbial –ly (productive and obligatory)
FROM INFLECTION TO DERIVATION
• Old Swedish MASK.SG.NOM –er > Modern Swedish nominalization suffix, e.g. en dummer ‘a stupid person’
• Old Swedish NEUT.PL.NOM/ACC –on > “berry-name suffix” as in hallon ‘raspberry’) > count noun derivation suffix, e.g. päron ‘pear’
• Swedish NEUT.SG –t > adverbial –t : examples of derived adverbs without adjectival counterpart, e.g. enbart ‘only’ (*enbar)
RARE
THEORETICAL ISSUES
1. Derivational affixes: grammaticalization or lexicalization (= creation of new lexemes)?
• Pro-lexicalization: new items are added to the lexicon
– but: derived item as a whole is added, not derivational suffix itself
• Pro-grammaticalization: derivational afffixes have many characteristics of grammaticalized items
– notable exception: they do not become part of a paradigm
THEORETICAL ISSUES
• Grammaticalization properties (Heine / Kuteva 2002) and Swedish –lig (e.g. ljuvlig ‘lovely) < lik ‘body’– 1: Desemanticization or semantic bleaching
loss of (concrete) meaning: • meaning ‘body’ is lost
– 2: Extension or context generalization use in new contexts:
• -lig can derive Adj from V: tro ‘believe’ > trolig ‘conceivable’
– 3: Decategorialization loss of morphosyntactic properties (e.g. inflection):
– 4: Erosion or phonetic reduction loss of phonetic substance:
THEORETICAL ISSUES
• Possible solution to reconcile opposite views: derivational affix is grammaticalized item which itself is involved in a lexicalization process
• Himmelmann 2004: lexicalization is a process sui generis
THEORETICAL ISSUES
2. If derivational affixes and inflectional affixes develop along different clines, how can they form a continuum?
THEORETICAL ISSUES
• Extended cline of lexicality:
phrase > compound > derivation affix > inherent inflection affix > inflection affix
CONCLUSIONS
• Instead of describing grammatical change in terms of clines, it is better to describe their subchanges
• Instead of universal pathways, it is better to speak of tendencies
• Inflectional affixes may have different origins
• There are no “end-points” in grammatical change
MORE INFO
• This presentation and more:
http://odur.let.rug.nl/~norde/downloadables.htm
(coming soon)