Semantic Change in Grammaticalization.docx
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Semantic Change in Grammaticalization.docx
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SemanticChangeinGrammaticalization
SemanticChangeinGrammaticalization
Abstract:
Generallyspeaking,grammaticalizationistheabstractionoflexicalitemsorconstructionswhichhavedevelopedintotheminimalgrammaticalunitsinacertaincontext.Asauniversallinguisticphenomenon,grammaticalizationhasattractedtheattentionofeasternandwesternscholarsforalongtime.However,ithadn'tbecomeahottopicinthestudyoflanguageuntilthebeginningofthe1970s.Itiswidelyagreedthatatypicalgrammaticalizationinvolveschangeatvariouslevels,suchas,phonemic,semantic/pragmaticandmorphosyntacticlevels.Inthispaperwetendtostudygrammaticalizationfromthefunctionalperspectiveandtakesemantic/functionalchangeinvolvedinitasourfocusinordertodeepenourunderstandingofgrammaticalizationphenomena.
Keywords:
grammaticalizationsemantic/functionalchangeEnglishstudy
Grammaticalization,asasubsetoflanguagechange,hasmuchincommonwithgenerallanguagechange.Inordertounderstandgrammaticalizationbetter,weshouldanswerthequestion:
Whatcouldbethedrivingforcebehindit?
Inthefunctionalists'opinion,grammaticalizationisasemanticallyleddevelopment,soastudyofitssemanticchangewillundoubtedlyhelpustoanswerthequestion.Forthisreason,muchgrammaticalizationresearchhasfocusedonthekindsofmeaningchangesinvolvedingrammaticalizationsinceearlyeightiesoflastcentury.Inthispaper,wewilldiscussthefollowingissues:
(1)theroleofmeaningchangeingrammaticalization,
(2)cognitionandsemanticchange,(3)communicationandsemanticchange,(4)pathsofsemanticchangeingrammaticalization.
1.TheRoleofMeaningChangeinGrammaticalization
Inthemainstreamlinguisticliterature,grammaticalconstructionshavebeenexaminedprimarilywithregardtotheirmorphosyntacticbehavior-morphologyofstructuralcomponents,syntacticordering,iteration,dependency,etc.Thisinterestisofcourseinharmonywithoneofthecommonbeliefsofadvocatesoftheautonomoussyntacticapproach(Lightfoot,1991;Warner,1993;Newmeyer,1998).Accordingtothem,semanticdevelopmentsdonothaveaclear-cutindependenceformandanypriorityoverformal,morphosyntacticchange;grammaticalizationandlanguagechangeingeneralaremotivatedbyformalchangeratherthanbysemanticchange.Lightfoot(1991:
148),forinstance,claimsthatthemeaningchangeinthegrammaticalizationoftheEnglishmodalauxiliarieswasentirelyaby-productofsyntacticrecategorialization,thusimplyingthatgrammaticalizationisnotasemanticallyleddevelopment.Butthisviewcannotgiveanyreasonableaccountoftheextensiveevidencethatgrammaticalizationaffectssimilarclassesoflexicalitemsinsimilarwaysacrossawidenumberoflanguages.Bybeeandhercolleagues,forinstance,findthattherearetwomostcommonpathsforthedevelopmentoffuturetensemorphemeinthelanguageoftheworldintheirvariousstudiesofverbalmorphology(e.g.Bybee,1985;BybeeandDahl,1989):
a.TheMovementPath
movementtowardsagoal→intention→future
b.TheVolitionpath
volitionordesire→intention→future
Heineetal.(1991)andBybeeetal(1994)reportanothercross-linguisticallypervasivegrammaticalizationpath:
thedevelopmentofaspatialadpositionalstructurewithanadpositionexpressingco-locationintotheprogressive,thatis,beat/on/in/with+place-denotingNounPhrase→progressive.
Solanguageisnotanautonomoussystem,neitherisgrammmaticalizationinit.Grammaticalizationistriggeredbytheneedsofhumancommunication.Meaningchangeplaysanimportantroleingrammaticalization.Itdrivesformalchangeratherthanbeingdrivenbyit(Kuteva,2001).Thechangefromlexicalitemstogrammaticalitemsisnotanarbitrarydevelopment;itisasemanticallyledoneinstead.
2.CognitionandSemanticChange
(1)LanguageandCognition
“Cognitionisessentiallytheprocessofknowing,anditencompassesthinking,decision-making,judging,imagining,problem-solving,categorizing,andreasoning?
Callhighermentalprocessesofhumanbeing”(Bower,1987:
208).Languageandcognitionhavecloserelationship.Languageissystematicallygroundedinhumancognition.Itisanintegralpartofhumancognitionandadvancedsystemofsocialcommunicationthatrepresentsthehighestachievementofhumancognition.
Inthelastthreedecades,manyscholarshavedoneresearchintothecorrelationbetweenlanguageandcognition.BerlinandKay's(1969)workincolorterms,followedbyKayandMacDaniel's(1978)lexicalsemanticanalysisofbasiccolorterms,haveproposedthathumanphysiologyunderlinescertainuniversaltrendsinsemantics.Fillmore(1977)hasarguedforchangeinourunderstandingoftheinternalstructureofwordmeaning;inparticular,theinternalstructureofwordmeaningisnotautonomousbutexistsagainstabackgroundofourgeneralassumptionsabouttheworld(socioculturalbeliefsincluded),andwordmeaningisfrequentlyprototype-basedratherthancomposedofchecklistsoffeatures.
LakoffandJohnson(1980)havefurtherproposedthatlinguisticusagesfrequentlyreflectourinherentlymetaphoricalunderstandingofmanybasicareasofourlives.Ourcognitionoperatesmetaphoricallymuchofthetimeinthatthereisacognitiveprincipleofexploitingoldmeansfornovelfunctions.Therefore,concreteconceptsareemployedinordertounderstand,explain,ordescribelessconcretephenomena.Inthisway,clearlydelineatedorstructuredentitiesarerecruitedtoconceptualizelessclearlydelineatedorstructuredentities,andnonphysicalexperienceisunderstoodintermsofphysicalexperience,timeintermsofspace,causeintermsoftime,orabstractrelationsintermsofphysicalprocessesorspatialrelations.Meaningsofwordsarerootedincognitiveexperienceofcultural,social,mental,andphysicalworldsandwordsdonotrandomlyacquirenewsenses.
Tosumup,languageisshapedbycognition,andanyadequateaccountoflanguagecannotbeseparatedfromhumancognition.Meaning,asacentralconcernoflanguage,isamentalphenomenonthatmusteventuallybedescribedwithreferencetocognitiveprocess.
(2)MetaphorandSemanticChange
Metaphoriscommonlyregardedasacognitivemechanismbywhichpeopleunderstandandexperienceonekindofthingintermsofanother;itinvolvestheprocessesofinferenceacrossconceptualboundariesandtheprocessesofsystematicmappingsfromonedomaintoanotherthatismotivatedbyanalogyandiconicrelationships.Itsdirectionalityoftransferisgenerallyfromabasic,concretemeaningtoamoreabstractone(LakoffandJohnson,1980;ClaudiandHeine,1986;Heineetal.,1991;HopperandTraugott,1993).Foranexampleofmetaphoricalmapping,HopperandTraugott(1993)raisea"mind-as-bodymetaphor,"followingSweetser(1990):
①Isee/graspthepointofyourargument.
Therelativelyconcreteconceptofseeingandgraspingisusedtoexpresstherelativelyabstractoneofknowingandunderstanding.Sincebodilyexperiencesareconceptuallymorebasictohumancognitionthanpsychologicalstates,theformerservesasasourceofvocabularyforthelatter.Themetaphoricalprocessinvolvedhereisthe"image-schemata"withconcretesourcesbeingmappedontoabstractconcepts(Sweetser,1988).Togeneralizewhatis"conceptuallymorebasic/concrete"andwhatis"moreabstract,"andthustogeneralizeadirectionofmetaphoricalmapping,Heineetal.(1991)proposethefollowinghierarchyofbasiccategories:
PERSON>OBJECT>PROCESS>SPACE>TIME>QUALITY
Basedonhumanegocentricdistance,thehierarchyindicatesthatthecategoriestotheleftarerelativelymorebasicandconcretethanthosesituatedtotheirright.Thus,thecategoriestotheleftserveasmetaphoricalvehiclesforthosesituatedtotheirright.Followingthisbasictendency,wemetaphoricallyunderstandmoreabstractandcomplicatedconceptsintermsofsystematicmappingsfrommoreconcreteandhighlystructuredexperience.Metaphorisknownasoneofthemajorfactorsinsemanticchangeingeneral.Intheprocessofgrammaticalization,metaphoralsoplaysanimportantrole:
thevehicleofametaphorandthelexemeundergoingdesemanticizationaregovernedbyanarrangementofconceptualizationwhichisunidirectionalandproceedsfromconcretetoabstract,andfromconceptswhichareclosetohumanexperiencetothosethataremoredifficulttodefineintermsofhumancognition.(ClaudiandHeine,1986:
328)
Inotherwords,metaphordefinesthedirectionofsemanticchangeingrammaticalization.Thedevelopmentofbodilyparttermsintolocativesandthedevelopmentofspatialintotemporalaregovernedby"categorialmetaphors"suchasSPACEISANOBJECTandTIMEISSPACE.Forinstance,abodypartnounbehindmeaningback'asinsentence(2a)metaphoricallyextendstoaspatialtermbehindasin(2b),andwhichsubsequentlyextendstotakeonatemporalmeaningafter'asin(2c):
②a.Hebouncedthemoutontheirbehinds.b.Heisbehindthebuilding.c.Wearebehindinpayingourbills.
Theseshiftsareinaccordancewiththeabovehierarchy,proceedingfromOBJECTtoSPACEandtoTIMEandrepresentthedirectionofsemanticchange,thatis,fromconcretetoabstract.
Thatmetaphorworksingrammaticalizaitonisapparentlymanifestedinthehistoricdevelopmentofspatiotemporaltermsinthelanguageoftheworld.NearlyeveryprepositionorparticlethatislocativeinEnglishisalsotemporalandtheprepositionsfor,since,andtill,whicharetemporalratherthanspatialinModernEnglish,"derivehistoricallyfromlocatives";furthe
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