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 - TY - JOUR A1 - Kranich, Svenja T1 - Functional layering and the English progressive JF - Linguistics : an interdisciplinary journal of the language sciences 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. KW - grammaticalization KW - subjectification KW - semantic change KW - the English progressive construction KW - polysemy Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1515/ling-2013-0001 SN - 0024-3949 VL - 51 IS - 1 SP - 1 EP - 32 PB - De Gruyter Mouton CY - Berlin 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 - CHAP A1 - Demske, Ulrike ED - Szczepaniak, Renata ED - Flick, Johanna T1 - The grammaticalization of the definite article in German BT - from demonstratives to weak definites T2 - Walking on the Grammaticalization Path of the Definite Article in German: Functional Main and Side Roads N2 - The present paper looks into the grammaticalization of the definite article in the history of German. Starting with the well-known emergence of the definite article from a demonstrative pronoun over the course of Old High German (750–1050), I will consider the rise of so-called weak definites in Early New High German (1350–1650) as a new piece of evidence for the grammaticalization process. Here, the subclass of possessive weak definites is of particular interest for the grammaticalization of the definite article in German, because of a word order change affecting the position of possessor phrases. As soon as the possessor systematically follows the head noun (except for proper names), we observe three alternatives for the prenominal determiner slot: it may remain empty, or it may be filled either by the indefinite or the definite article in Early New High German. In Present-Day German, the definite article is used in the unmarked case, thus pointing to a second stage in the grammaticalization process of the definite article in German, which has so far not been acknowledged in the literature. KW - grammaticalization KW - definite article KW - weak definites KW - Old High German KW - Early New High German KW - Present-Day German Y1 - 2020 SN - 978-9-027204943 SN - 978-9-027261564 SP - 43 EP - 73 PB - John Benjamins Publishing Company CY - Amsterdam ER -