The grammaticalization of a branch of related of-binominal constructions

The grammaticalization of a branch of related of-binominal constructions

(with of-appositions)

Elnora ten Wolde

University of Vienna

ICHL 22 July 2015 Naples

The N-of-N family

N-of-N

July 2015 ICHL 22 2

Possession Location Head-Qualifier Apposition Evaluative Binominal NP Evaluative Modifier Degree Modifier

Aarts 1998; Brems 2007, 2011; Brems & Davidse 2010; Davidse 2009; Denison 2002, 2005; Foolen 2004; Keizer 2007; Napoli 1989; Traugott 2008; Trousdale 2012

Partitive Pseudo-partitives Sort of/Kind of/Type of

Introduction

• Present a corpus-based, diachronic analysis of the use, form and development of a number of related binominal noun phrases.

• Demonstrate a Functional Discourse Grammar explanation of this development with the example of beast as the head (e.g. a beast of a party).

(ten Wolde & Keizer forthc.)

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FUNCTIONAL DISCOURSE GRAMMAR A SHORT INTRODUCTION

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FDG: characterization (1)

• Functional Discourse Grammar: – a “structural-functional” theory of language – a “form-oriented function-to-form” approach (Hengeveld & Mackenzie

2008: 38-39)

• A structural theory: – FDG recognizes that, at any particular point in time, a grammar is

indeed a structured system – a system shaped by use, and therefore to be described in relation to language use.

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FDG: characterization (2)

• Functional: – relation between function and form

• Function-to-form: – form explained by function

• “Form-oriented”: – FDG only provides an account of those conceptual and contextual

phenomena which are systematically reflected in the morphosytactic and/or phonological form of a language.

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FDG: distinctive features

• FDG has a top-down organization.

• FDG analyses utterances in terms of four independent, interactive modules, yielding four levels of analysis: – Interpersonal Level: discourse & pragmatics

– Representational Level: semantics

– Morphosyntactic Level: morphosyntax

– Phonological Level: phonology

• FDG (the Grammatical Component) systematically interacts with three non-linguistic components: – a Conceptual Component

– an Output Component

– a Contextual Component

July 2015 7 ICHL 22

Conceptual Component

Templates

Suppletive forms

Phonological operators

Templates

Grammatical morphemes

Morphosyntactic operators

FORMULATION

MORPHOSYNTACTIC ENCODING

Frames

Lexemes

Operators

Co

ntextu

al Co

mp

on

ent

Output Component

PHONOLOGICAL ENCODING

Interpersonal Level

Representational Level

Morphosyntactic Level

Phonological Level

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FDG: an example

a ferocious beast

IL: (-id R1: [(T1) (T2)])

RL: (1 x1: [(f1: beast ) : (f2: ferocious )])

ML: (Np1: [(Gw1: a ) (Ap1: (Aw1: ferocious )) (Nw1: beast )] )

PL: (PP1: [(PW1: / ə / ) (PW2: /fəˈrəʊʃəs / ) (PW3: /ˈbi:st / )] )

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THE N-OF-N FAMILY

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Prototypical N+PP Location:

(1) ƿet te beast of helle, hwen he snakereð toward ow forte biten on ow …

So that the beast of hell, when he sneaks towards you in order to bite you

(c.1200 PPCME; Lundskær-Nielsen 1993:139)


CC: two entities, relation of source or location

IL: (+id R1: [(T1) (R2: (helle)])

RL: (1x1: [(f1: beast): (l1: [(f2: [(f3: ofAdp) (1x2)Ref])])])

ML: (Np1: [(Gw1: the) (Nw1: beast) (Adpp1: [(Adpw1: of) (Np2: (Nw2: helle)])])







IL: (+id R1: [(T1) (R2: (helle)])



Head Qualifier

(2) Even beasts of prey are not such to those of their own kind. (1662 OED)

(3) Like a beast of lower pleasures, like a beast of lower pains. Mated to a squalid savage, what to me were sun or clime? [COHA]


CC: one entity, qualified in term of another ontological class

IL: (-id R1: [(T1) (T2)])

RL: (1x1: [(f1: beast): (x2: (f2: prey))])

ML: (Np1: [(Gw1: a) (Nw1: beast) (Gw2: of) (Np2: (Nw2: prey))])

Head Qualifier





IL: (-id R1: [(T1) (T2)])



Apposition

(4) She bought at this time the fiercest but most beautiful beast of a horse she had ever mounted. The creature was superbly handsome […] [1896

COHA]


CC: one entity, two properties equally applying

IL: (+id R1: [(T1) (T2)])

RL: (1x1: [(f1: beast … ) (f2: horse)])

ML: (Np1:[(Gw1: the) … (Nw1:beast)(Gw2:of)(Np2: (Gw3: a)(Nw2: horse))])

Evaluative Binominal NP (1)

(5) “Where’s my drunken beast of a husband?” [1770 ARCHER]


CC: one entity, metaphorically evaluated (neg)

IL: (-id R1: [(T1) (T2)])

RL: (1x1: [(f1: husband): (f2: beast)])

ML: (Np1: [(Gw1: a) (Nw1: beast) (Gw2: of) (Np2: (Gw3: a) (Nw2: husband))])





IL: (-id R1: [(T1) (T2)])





a beastly husband a beast of a husband






IL: (-id R1: [(T1) (T2)])




(6) *a teacher of a husband (Keizer 2007: 86)

(7) a. your jerk of a/*the brother

b. Your brother is a jerk. (Aarts 1998: 131)

(8) a. this oceanic barge of a woman

b. another bitchy iceberg of a woman (Aarts 1998: 132-133;

Keizer 2007)


Evaluative Modifier (1)

(9) It was two years ago at Bethpage Black, a beast of a golf course anyone could play for $31, where raucous New Yorkers cheered for Phil Mickelson, razzed Sergio Garcia and left amazed at the incomparable Tiger Woods […] That's hardly the case now. [2004 COHA]

CC: one entity, evaluated (pos/neg), evaluation reinforced

IL: (-id R1: [(T1) (reinf T2)])

RL: (1x1: [(f1: – golf course –)]) CONTEXT

ML: (Np1: [(Gw1: a) (Nw1: beast) (Gw2: of) (Np2: (Gw3: a) (Nw2: golf course))])

February 2015 27 Substance and Structure in Linguistics


Possible effects of changes at the Interpersonal and Representational Levels on the Morphosyntactic/Phonological levels.

(10) a hell of a walkover (1894 COHA) > helluva note (1912 COHA) > one hella witch (2006 COCA)

(Trousdale 2012: 182- 183)

(11) Allanʼs beastuva stomach was tamed. [Google-US, fan-fiction]



(17) [...] we have decided to play that beastuva song you all can view on the flashbox [...] (Internet)


IL: (-id R1: [(T1) (reinf T2)])

RL: (1x1: [(f1: – song –)]) context

ML: (Np1: [(Gw1: a ) (Ap1: (Aw1: beasta )) (Nw1: song )])

PL: (PP1: [(PW1: /ə/ ) (PW2: /ˈbi:stəvə/ ) (PW3: /ˈsɒŋ/ )])

Hell of N

Head-Q With such a hell of pain and world of charge (1623 Shakespeare First)

Apposition

I shall love this I know, though it is not the hell of my childhood. (1848 COHA)

EBNP

You've got us into a hell of a scrape, and you may well look sheepish. (COHA 1864)

Eval Mod

The boat went back in the afternoon, and here we be in a hell of a muss. (COHA 1867)

Whale of N

Location he wende þat it hade bene a whale of þe see (1350-1420 PPCME)

Head-Q

was devoured by the great land whale of public opinion (1823 ARCHER)

EBNP what should I see but a long rakish corvette in company with a huge whale of a line-of-battle ship, with her double tier of ports glimmering away in the (1864 COHA)

Eval Mod

Expertly Tailored Rayon Challis Sport Shirt a whale of a buy in a handsome, slow to soil fabric – (1957 ARCHER)


CONCLUSION


Conclusion (1)

• Critical stages:

Prototypical N+PP

Head-Qualifier: loss of second referent on IL mismatch between IL & RL

Apposition: Loss of second individual on RL

Evaluative Binominal NP: Switch of head, reestablish transparency between IL & RL, mismatch between RL and ML

Evaluative Modifier: Loss of semantic content phonological reduction

July 2015 32 ICHL 22

Conclusion (2)

• The head-qualifier, of-apposition, and evaluative binominal noun phrase appear to be historically related.

• I hope this has demonstrated the potential of FDG for modeling constructional change.


Bibliography (1)

Aarts, Bas. 1998. English binominal noun phrases. Transactions of the Philological Society 96, 117-158.

Brems, Lieselotte. 2007. The grammaticalization of small size nouns: Reconsidering frequency and analogy. Journal of English Linguistics 35, 293-324.

Brems, Lieselotte. 2011. Layering of size and type noun constructions in English. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

Brems, Lieselotte & Kristin Davidse. 2010. The grammaticalisation of nominal type noun constructions with kind/sort of: Chronology and paths of change. English Studies 91, 180-202.

Davidse, Kristin. 2009. Complete and sort of: From identifying to intensifying? Transactions of the Philological Society Volume 107(3), 262–292.

Denison, David. 2002. History of the sort of construction family. Paper presented at ICCG2: Second International Conference on Construction Grammar, Helsinki.

Denison, David. 2005. The grammaticalisations of sort of, kind of and type of in English. Paper presented at New Reflections on Grammaticalization 3, University of Santiago de Compostela.

Foolen, Ad., 2004. Expressive binominal NPs in Germanic and Romance languages. In G. Radden & K.-U. Panther (eds.), Studies in Linguistic Motivation. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 75-100.

Hengeveld, Kees & Lachlan Mackenzie. 2008. Functional Discourse Grammar. Oxford: Oxford University Press.


Bibliography (2)

Keizer, Evelien. 2007. The English noun phrase: The nature of linguistic categorization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Napoli, Donna Jo. 1989. Predication theory: A case study for indexing theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

ten Wolde, Elnora; Keizer, Evelien. Forthc. Structure and substance in Functional Discourse Grammar :The case of the Binominal Noun Phrase. Traugott, Elizabeth Closs. 2008. The grammaticalization of NP of NP patterns. In Bergs, Alexander

& Gabriele Diewald (eds.), Constructions and language change (Trends in Linguistics. Studies and Monographs 194) Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 23-45.

Trousdale, Graeme. 2012. Grammaticalization, constructions, and the grammaticalization of constructions. In Davidse, Kristen, Tina Breban, Lieselotte Brems & Tanja Mortelmons (eds.), Grammaticalization and language change: New reflections. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 167-194.


Thank you!

([email protected])


Evaluative Modifier

(13) It was a hell of a night for a meeting -- with the storm going and the river about to blow. (14) "Y'ever hear what Kennedy said three hours before he was shot?" he asked, putting on his best Massachusetts accent. "You know, last night would've been a hell of a night to kill a President." (15) I told him I'd do it for nothing until Tiger turned pro and started winning tournaments. Then I’d send him a hell of a bill . (COCA)

QUALITATIVE NEGATIVE

POSITIVE QUANTITATIVE


Reanalysis as an Adjective

the hellest of weeks That much is true, but before the hellest of the hellest of the hellest days in

school started, I managed to watch some series… (≈ 180 tokens Google US)


The grammaticalization of a branch of related of-binominal constructions

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