Auxiliaries: Cognitive Forces and Grammaticalization

by Bernd Heine

Overview

Offering a new perspective on auxiliaries in particular and language structure in general, this study argues that language cannot be explained satisfactorily with reference to linguistic variables alone; what is required in addition are extra-linguistic parameters relating to how we perceive the world around us, and how we utilize the linguistic resources available to us to conceptualize our experiences, and to communicate successfully. Rather than a closed, self-contained system, language is an entity that is constantly shaped by such external factors as cognitive forces, pragmatic manipulation, history, etc. These factors are responsible for the emergence of chain-like linguistic structures, and auxiliaries are typical examples of such structures, which Heine describes as grammaticalization chains. A limited number of concrete event schemas are discussed and these schemas are shown to be responsible for much of the linguistic diversity that auxiliary constructions exhibit in the languages of the world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195359275
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	09/30/1993
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	1 MB

Table of Contents

	Abbreviations	xi
1.	The state of the art	3
1.1	Problems	4
1.2	Hypotheses	8
1.2.1	The autonomy hypothesis	8
1.2.2	The main-verb hypothesis	8
1.2.3	Gradience	9
1.2.4	Auxiliary as a universal category?	9
1.2.5	Other positions	11
1.2.6	"Quasi-auxiliaries,"	14
1.3	Notional domains	16
1.4	Criteria	17
1.5	Dependency	18
1.6	Definitions	20
1.7	Some properties of auxiliaries	22
1.8	How to explain auxiliaries?	24
1.9	Conclusion	26
2.	Grammaticalization	27
2.1	Basic event schemas	27
2.1.1	Conceptual properties	30
2.1.2	Linguistic properties	32
2.1.3	Complex schemas	37
2.1.4	On the significance of event schemas	43
2.1.5	Conceptual shift	45
2.2	The Overlap Model	48
2.3	Grammaticalization chains	53
2.4	The Verb-to-TAM chain	53
2.4.1	Parameters	54
2.4.2	Stages	58
2.5	The chain of grammatical functions	66
2.6	On defining auxiliaries	69
2.7	Discussion	70
2.7.1	On locating auxiliaries	71
2.7.2	An alternative chain	76
2.7.3	Related approaches	79
2.8	Conclusion	86
3.	Some basic issues	88
3.1	Conceptual shift	88
3.1.1	The content	89
3.1.2	The process	95
3.2	Dependency	99
3.2.1	The problem	99
3.2.2	The Zwicky-Hudson controversy	100
3.2.3	Discussion	104
3.3	Erosion	106
3.4	On categorization	112
3.5	Reanalysis	116
3.6	On explanation	119
4.	Conclusions	130
	Notes	133
	References	137
	Name Index	151
	Language Index	155
	Subject Index	157