{"title":"从拉丁语QUO(D) VELLES到Romagnol Cvël:从自由选择不定词到名词“Thing”的非语法化案例","authors":"Nicola D’Antuono","doi":"10.1111/1467-968x.12277","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Degrammaticalisation is an oft-dismissed category of language change. In this paper evidence is provided for its existence, its triggers, and its conditions. This case study details the development of an understudied Old Italo-Romance indefinite, <i>covelle</i>, a polarity-sensitive item roughly translating as ‘anything’ which originated from a Latin free relative with Free-Choice interpretation. It is shown that in Old Italo-Romance the original Free Choice use was expanded to further nonveridical contexts. Subsequently, a curious development of covelle in Old Romagnol, a 16th-century Gallo-Italic variety, is examined whereby polar neutralisation (loss of sensitivity to polarity) of the indefinite was taking place. Contextually, a process of degrammaticalisation had begun through which the indefinite pronoun developed into the classifier ‘thing’. In Modern and Contemporary Romagnol <i>cvël</i> is almost exclusively employed as a noun/classifier. It is argued that two parallel processes have initiated a cycle that led <i>cvël</i> to complete degrammaticalisation: (i) the grammaticalization of the old noun for ‘thing’, <i>co</i>(<i>n</i>)<i>sa</i>, into a wh-word, calling for lexical replacement, and (ii) competition from the Negative Concord Item <i>gnit</i>. The development of <i>covelle</i> in Romagnol represents a well-documented case of degrammaticalisation, whose causes and conditions can be thoroughly described and motivated within an interaction with cyclical change.","PeriodicalId":44794,"journal":{"name":"TRANSACTIONS OF THE PHILOLOGICAL SOCIETY","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3000,"publicationDate":"2023-11-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":"{\"title\":\"From Latin QUO(D) VELLES to Romagnol Cvël: A Case of Degrammaticalisation from a Free-choice Indefinite to the Noun ‘Thing’1\",\"authors\":\"Nicola D’Antuono\",\"doi\":\"10.1111/1467-968x.12277\",\"DOIUrl\":null,\"url\":null,\"abstract\":\"Degrammaticalisation is an oft-dismissed category of language change. In this paper evidence is provided for its existence, its triggers, and its conditions. This case study details the development of an understudied Old Italo-Romance indefinite, <i>covelle</i>, a polarity-sensitive item roughly translating as ‘anything’ which originated from a Latin free relative with Free-Choice interpretation. It is shown that in Old Italo-Romance the original Free Choice use was expanded to further nonveridical contexts. Subsequently, a curious development of covelle in Old Romagnol, a 16th-century Gallo-Italic variety, is examined whereby polar neutralisation (loss of sensitivity to polarity) of the indefinite was taking place. Contextually, a process of degrammaticalisation had begun through which the indefinite pronoun developed into the classifier ‘thing’. In Modern and Contemporary Romagnol <i>cvël</i> is almost exclusively employed as a noun/classifier. It is argued that two parallel processes have initiated a cycle that led <i>cvël</i> to complete degrammaticalisation: (i) the grammaticalization of the old noun for ‘thing’, <i>co</i>(<i>n</i>)<i>sa</i>, into a wh-word, calling for lexical replacement, and (ii) competition from the Negative Concord Item <i>gnit</i>. The development of <i>covelle</i> in Romagnol represents a well-documented case of degrammaticalisation, whose causes and conditions can be thoroughly described and motivated within an interaction with cyclical change.\",\"PeriodicalId\":44794,\"journal\":{\"name\":\"TRANSACTIONS OF THE PHILOLOGICAL SOCIETY\",\"volume\":null,\"pages\":null},\"PeriodicalIF\":0.3000,\"publicationDate\":\"2023-11-15\",\"publicationTypes\":\"Journal Article\",\"fieldsOfStudy\":null,\"isOpenAccess\":false,\"openAccessPdf\":\"\",\"citationCount\":\"0\",\"resultStr\":null,\"platform\":\"Semanticscholar\",\"paperid\":null,\"PeriodicalName\":\"TRANSACTIONS OF THE PHILOLOGICAL SOCIETY\",\"FirstCategoryId\":\"1085\",\"ListUrlMain\":\"https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-968x.12277\",\"RegionNum\":4,\"RegionCategory\":\"文学\",\"ArticlePicture\":[],\"TitleCN\":null,\"AbstractTextCN\":null,\"PMCID\":null,\"EPubDate\":\"\",\"PubModel\":\"\",\"JCR\":\"0\",\"JCRName\":\"LANGUAGE & LINGUISTICS\",\"Score\":null,\"Total\":0}","platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"TRANSACTIONS OF THE PHILOLOGICAL SOCIETY","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-968x.12277","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"LANGUAGE & LINGUISTICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
From Latin QUO(D) VELLES to Romagnol Cvël: A Case of Degrammaticalisation from a Free-choice Indefinite to the Noun ‘Thing’1
Degrammaticalisation is an oft-dismissed category of language change. In this paper evidence is provided for its existence, its triggers, and its conditions. This case study details the development of an understudied Old Italo-Romance indefinite, covelle, a polarity-sensitive item roughly translating as ‘anything’ which originated from a Latin free relative with Free-Choice interpretation. It is shown that in Old Italo-Romance the original Free Choice use was expanded to further nonveridical contexts. Subsequently, a curious development of covelle in Old Romagnol, a 16th-century Gallo-Italic variety, is examined whereby polar neutralisation (loss of sensitivity to polarity) of the indefinite was taking place. Contextually, a process of degrammaticalisation had begun through which the indefinite pronoun developed into the classifier ‘thing’. In Modern and Contemporary Romagnol cvël is almost exclusively employed as a noun/classifier. It is argued that two parallel processes have initiated a cycle that led cvël to complete degrammaticalisation: (i) the grammaticalization of the old noun for ‘thing’, co(n)sa, into a wh-word, calling for lexical replacement, and (ii) competition from the Negative Concord Item gnit. The development of covelle in Romagnol represents a well-documented case of degrammaticalisation, whose causes and conditions can be thoroughly described and motivated within an interaction with cyclical change.
期刊介绍:
Transactions of the Philological Society continues the earlier Proceedings (1852-53), and is the oldest scholarly periodical devoted to the general study of language and languages that has an unbroken tradition. Transactions reflects a wide range of linguistic interest and contains articles on a diversity of topics: among those published in recent years have been papers on phonology, Romance linguistics, generative grammar, pragmatics, sociolinguistics, Indo-European philology and the history of English.