TY  - JOUR
A1  - Fiedler, Ines
A1  - Schwarz, Anne
T1  - Out-of-focus encoding in Gur and Kwa
JF  - Interdisciplinary studies on information structure : ISIS ; working papers of the SFB 632
N2  - This paper investigates the structural properties of morphosyntactically marked focus constructions, focussing on the often neglected non-focal sentence part in African tone languages. Based on new empirical evidence from five Gur and Kwa languages, we claim that these focus expressions have to be analysed as biclausal constructions even though they do not represent clefts containing restrictive relative clauses. First, we relativize the partly overgeneralized assumptions about structural correspondences between the out-of-focus part and relative clauses, and second, we show that our data do in fact support the hypothesis of a clause coordinating pattern as present in clause sequences in narration. It is argued that we deal with a non-accidental, systematic feature and that grammaticalization may conceal such basic narrative structures.
KW  - ex-situ focus
KW  - focus marker
KW  - relative clause
KW  - conjunction
KW  - grammaticalization
Y1  - 2005
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-8739
SN  - 1866-4725
SN  - 1614-4708
IS  - 3
SP  - 111
EP  - 142
ER  - 
TY  - GEN
A1  - Kranich, Svenja
T1  - Functional layering and the English progressive
T2  - Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Philosophische Reihe
N2  - In this article, it will be argued that the concept of functional layering – an extension of Hopper’s (1991) concept of layering – can be fruitfully applied to understand the mechanisms behind the sometimes large and messy looking synchronic picture of diverse meanings which one and the same construction can fulfill at a particular point in time. The concept will be used to account for the meaning spectrum of the present-day English progressive, which, it will be argued, no monosemic approach to date can account for. Taking a look at the diachrony of the construction will help to reveal that the various “exceptions” found in the use of the progressive can be understood as reflections of different stages in its development. Older, less grammaticalized or less well-defined usage patterns thus often survive in certain restricted niches next to the newer, more grammaticalized or more clear-cut functions, representing different diachronic layers. In addition to this diachronic motivation for synchronic meaning variety, the article will also address the crucial question of how a present-day hearer of a progressive form is able to decode the specific meaning intended by the speaker based on contextual clues. The article ends with some suggestions for further applications of the concept of functional layering.
T3  - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Philosophische Reihe - 110 
KW  - grammaticalization
KW  - subjectification
KW  - semantic change
KW  - the English progressive construction
KW  - polysemy
Y1  - 2016
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-93961
SN  - 1866-8380
IS  - 110
ER  - 
TY  - BOOK
A1  - Pfau, Roland
A1  - Steinbach, Markus
T1  - Modality-independent and modality-specific aspects of grammaticalization in sign languages
N2  - One type of internal diachronic change that has been extensively studied for spoken languages is grammaticalization whereby lexical elements develop into free or bound grammatical elements. Based on a wealth of spoken languages, a large amount of prototypical grammaticalization pathways has been identified. Moreover, it has been shown that desemanticization, decategorialization, and phonetic erosion are typical characteristics of grammaticalization processes. Not surprisingly, grammaticalization is also responsible for diachronic change in sign languages. Drawing data from a fair number of sign languages, we show that grammaticalization in visual-gestural languages – as far as the development from lexical to grammatical element is concerned – follows the same developmental pathways as in spoken languages. That is, the proposed pathways are modalityindependent. Besides these intriguing parallels, however, sign languages have the possibility of developing grammatical markers from manual and non-manual co-speech gestures. We will discuss various instances of grammaticalized gestures and we will also briefly address the issue of the modality-specificity of this phenomenon.
T3  - Linguistics in Potsdam - 24 
KW  - grammaticalization
KW  - sign languages
KW  - modality
KW  - gesture
KW  - non-manuals
KW  - typology
Y1  - 2006
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-10886
SN  - 978-3-939469-53-7
SN  - 1864-1857
SN  - 1616-7392
PB  - Universitätsverlag Potsdam
CY  - Potsdam
ER  -