Chapter 10. Forty years in the search of a/the subject
Verbalization/Insubordination: A Diachronic Syntactic Isogloss in Northeast Asia
Abstract The present paper discusses one of diachronic syntactic isoglosses in Northeast Asia. This study addresses in particular the process of renewal of finite verbal forms through non-finite forms, which is very prominent in different families in Northeast Asia (Tungusic, Mongolic, Turkic, Japanese and Korean). It will be shown that the processes of verbalization (finitization of participles and nominalizations) is a general areal feature in Northeast Asia, but recognition of this diachronic isogloss has been partially hampered by differences in research traditions. Apart from similarities (finitization of participles/nominalizations, displacement and modalization of the erstwhile finit…
The Linguistic Interaction of Mood with Modality and Other Categories
This chapter surveys some of the most important findings in the literature regarding the syntagmatic interactions between linguistic expressions of mood and of modality and some other categories, and regarding how these interactions may be explained in terms of the semantic properties of the categories involved. After a preliminary exemplification of the syntagmatic interaction of mood with other categories, showing how infelicitous combinations are either blocked or reinterpreted, the chapter deals, in subsequent sections, with the interaction with modal and modality related markers, with tense, with aspect, with negation, and with person. It concludes with a further discussion of the fact…
Ergativity and Differential Case Marking
Abstract The present chapter discusses patterns of differential case marking in ergative languages, focusing on differential subject marking, which is more prominent in ergative languages (in contrast to accusative languages, where differential object marking is more prominent). It is argued that patterns of (differential) case marking can be accounted two general constraints related to (role)-indexing, on the one hand, and distinguishability (or markedness) on the other hand. This approach correctly predicts asymmetries between differential object marking (DOM) and differential subject marking (DSM) with regard to animacy, definiteness, as well as discourse features. I also show how this a…
Animacy shifts and resolution of semantic conflicts: A typological commentary onShifting animacyby de Swart & de Hoop
Verbalization of nominalizations: A typological commentary on the article by Nikki van de Pol
Abstract The present article provides a typological commentary on the article by Nikki van de Pol (2019) on the history of the English gerund. It is shown that in spite of certain idiosyncratic aspects, the history of the verbal gerund illustrates a well-known grammaticalization path of verbalization, whereby deverbal nouns are first grammaticalized into nonfinite forms (participles, infinitives, converbs), and may later be integrated into the verbal paradigm. It is further suggested that the mixed behavior attested for the verbal gerund, which deviates both from the nominal and from the clausal prototype, may be universally supported by constructional polysemy and blending with constructio…