Noun-Based Constructions in the History of Portuguese and Spanish (Oxford Studies in Diachronic and Historical Linguistics)

This book explores syntactic and semantic change in three types of construction in Spanish and Portuguese: (i) complex determiner phrases with clausal adjunction ( el hecho de , o facto de ), (ii) complex prepositions/complementizers and complex connectives ( sin embargo de / sem embargo de , so(b) pena de ), and (iii) complex predicates containing light verbs ( dar consejo / conselho de ). While these constructions are syntactically different, they are all clause-taking complex expressions containing a noun followed by the functional preposition de ('of'). This book is the first work to use a systematic comparative corpus study to explore these expressions together; this approach allows individual changes to be distinguished from general changes, as well as emphasizing the chronological clustering of changes that involve complex constructions in both languages. By studying mechanisms of language change and their outcomes in two sister languages, Patrícia Amaral and Manuel Delicado Cantero address questions such as: How do complex constructions evolve? How does the meaning of the noun change when considered in isolation and when compared to the meaning of the whole construction? And how do syntactic categories change over time? This study of two closely-related languages reveals distinct developments occurring in parallel, and provides a crucial test case for theories of language change. Cover 1 Titlepage 4 Copyright 5 Contents 8 Series preface 10 Acknowledgments 11 List of figures and tables 12 List of abbreviations 13 1 Introduction 16 1.1 Aims and motivation for this book 16 1.2 Theoretical issues and broader contributions 19 1.3 Corpus data and data use 21 1.4 Summary of the book 23 2 Syntactic and semantic change in clause-taking nominal constructions 26 2.1 Clause-taking nominals 26 2.1.1 Nouns taking clauses 26 2.1.2 Constructions 31 2.2 Current approaches to semantic and syntactic change 33 2.2.1 Language-internal mechanisms of syntactic change 33 2.2.2 Semantic change 36 2.2.3 Consequences of syntactic and semantic change 40 2.3 Nouns taking finite clauses: the common analogical change 43 3 Clausal adjunction 48 3.1 Introduction 48 3.2 Abstract entities and their linguistic realization: events and facts 49 3.3 Present-day overview: hecho (Spanish) and feito/facto (Portuguese) 55 3.4 The historical data 60 3.4.1 Spanish hecho and el hecho de (que) 60 3.4.2 Portuguese feito and facto 68 3.5 Syntactic change: discussion 78 3.6 Semantic change: discussion 82 3.7 Conclusion 93 4 Connectives 95 4.1 Introduction 95 4.2 Spanish sin embargo (de que) and Portuguese sem embargo (de que) 95 4.2.1 The historical data 97 4.2.2 Interim conclusion 108 4.3 Spanish so pena de (que), Portuguese sob pena de (que) 109 4.3.1 The historical data 110 4.4 Syntactic and semantic change 119 4.4.1 Reanalysis, recategorization, and syntactic compositionality 119 4.4.2 Paths of semantic change 122 4.5 Conclusion 132 5 Light verb constructions 134 5.1 Introduction 134 5.2 The concept of `light verb'; LVCs in diachrony 135 5.3 LVCs in Spanish and Portuguese 137 5.4 Synchronic overview: present-day Spanish and Portuguese 145 5.4.1 Spanish consejo and Portuguese conselho 145 5.4.2 Spanish dar (Det) consejo de and Portuguese dar (Det) conselho de 148 5.5 Diachronic overview 156 5.5.1 Spanish consejo and Portuguese conselho 158 5.5.2 The LVC: Spanish dar (Det) consejo de and Portuguese dar (Det) conselho de 162 5.6 Continuity and change 168 5.7 Conclusion 170 6 Conclusion 172 6.1 Chronology of the properties of the nouns and constructions 175 6.2 Recategorization, compositionality, and mechanisms of change 177 6.3 From theory to historical data and back again 180 References 184 Index 198 Untitled 4 Untitled 2 Untitled 8 "This book explores the syntactic and semantic change of three types of constructions in Spanish and Portuguese: (i) complex DPs with clausal adjunction (el hecho de, o facto de), (ii) complex prepositions/complementizers and complex connectives (sin embargo de/sem embargo de, so(b) pena de), and (iii) complex predicates containing light verbs (dar consejo/conselho de). While these constructions are syntactically different, they are all clause-taking complex expressions containing a noun followed by the functional preposition de ('of'). This book is the first work to examine them together through a systematic comparative corpus study. This makes it possible to tease apart individual from general changes and to focus on the chronological clustering of changes involving complex constructions in both languages. The development of these constructions has multiple causes related to the noun. Specifically, the reanalysis of the entire expression is affected both by the meaning of the noun and by changes in complementation patterns that systematically affected nouns (as well as verbs and adjectives) in the 16th-17th centuries in both languages. By studying mechanisms of language change and their outcomes in two sister languages, the book addresses questions like: How do complex constructions evolve? How does the meaning of the noun change when considered in isolation and when compared to the meaning of the whole construction? How do syntactic categories change over time? Studies of closely related languages, which can reveal distinct developments occurring in parallel over time, provide a crucial test case for theories of language change" This book explores syntactic and semantic change in three types of construction in Spanish and Portuguese: (i) complex determiner phrases with clausal adjunction (el hecho de, o facto de), (ii) complex prepositions/complementizers and complex connectives (sin embargo de/sem embargo de, so(b) pena de), and (iii) complex predicates containing light verbs (dar consejo/conselho de). While these constructions are syntactically different, they are all clause-taking complex expressions containing a noun followed by the functional preposition de ('of'). This book is the first work to use a systematic comparative corpus study to explore these expressions together; this approach allows individual changes to be distinguished from general changes, as well as emphasizing the chronological clustering of changes that involve complex constructions in both languages. By studying mechanisms of language change and their outcomes in two sister languages, Patrícia Amaral and Manuel Delicado Cantero address questions such as: How do complex constructions evolve? How does the meaning of the noun change when considered in isolation and when compared to the meaning of the whole construction? And how do syntactic categories change over time? This study of two closely-related languages reveals distinct developments occurring in parallel, and provides a crucial test case for theories of language change.