FLL research: Diachrony

Description

A significant part of the group’s recent and current research is informed by the notion of grammaticalization, especially in the tradition initiated by Traugott which focuses on semantic-pragmatic change from representational to interpersonal and/or textual meanings.

At the level of the clause, the group’s main endeavour is to account for the diachronic change and variation in the distribution patterns of different complementation patterns (to-infinitives, bare infinitives, gerunds, that-clauses). By investigating the factors involved in this distribution, the aim is to go beyond the synchronic, primarily semantically based accounts of complementation which are widespread in the cognitive-linguistic paradigm.

As for the noun phrase, the driving force behind diachronic research into the English NP is that no description can achieve comprehensive analytical coverage and insightful semantic analysis, if the present-day patterns are not intrinsically viewed as resulting from ongoing and completed grammaticalization processes. This is because significant patterns in the English NP are often ‘dynamic’ patterns, which have to be dealt with in terms of grammaticalization as well as in terms of emergent polysemy and emergent grammar.

Representative publications

Breban, Tine and Kristin Davidse (2003) Adjectives of comparison: The grammaticalization of their attribute uses into postdeterminer and classifier uses. Folia Linguistica XXXVII (3-4): 269-317.

Cuyckens, Hubert (1999) Grammaticalization in the English prepositions ‘to’ and ‘for’. In B. Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk (ed.) Cognitive perspectives on language. Frankfurt: Lang. 151-161.

De Smet, Hendrik (2004) Semantics and variation in complement constructions: Gerunds and infinitives following the verb like. Belgian Journal of English Language and Literatures. New Series 2: 247-260.

De Smet, Hendrik and Hubert Cuyckens (2005) Pragmatic strengthening and the meaning of complement constructions: The case of like and love with the to-infinitive. Journal of English Linguistics 33 (1): 3-34.