Meaning change in grammaticalization : an enquiry into semantic reanalysis
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Meaning change in grammaticalization : an enquiry into semantic reanalysis
Oxford University Press, 2006
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Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. [264]-279) and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
This book explores the semantic and pragmatic mechanisms underlying grammaticalization. Regine Eckardt argues that language change frequently involves a structural reorganization at the phonological, morphological, and syntactic levels. Speakers not only master the structural aspect of such reanalyses, they also-as the author argues-keep a detailed mental record of what has happened to meaning. The author develops semantic reanalysis as the semantic correlate and
tracks its effects in meaning change. Several case studies offer new insights in the architecture of conceptual thinking that is part of the human language faculty.
Professor Eckardt develops her approach in terms of formal semantic theory. She shows how neatly tailored analyses in truth-conditional compositional semantics can elucidate the structural mechanisms of meaning change. Her exposition is advanced in the context of several in-depth case studies containing data new to historical linguistics. This book will be of central interest to scholars and advanced students of historical and comparative linguistics and of formal semantics in departments of
linguistics and philosophy.
Table of Contents
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Menaing Change Under Reanalysis: Previous Views
- 3. Truth Conditional Semantics
- 4. What is Going to happen
- 5. From Step to Negation: The Development of French Complex Negation Patterns
- 6. From Intensifier to Focus Particle
- 7. To Be or Not To Be a Determiner
- 8. Semantic Reanalysis: The Algebraic Backbone of Meaning Change
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