Subjects in the Linguistic Cycle: a Formal Account of Grammaticalization

Elly van Gelderen

ellyvangelderen@asu.edu

University of Padova, 18 May 2007

www.public.asu.edu/~gelderen/padova.ppt

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AimsTo present a description of some recurring

linguistic changes

To understand some of these cycles within a Minimalist Program

OutlineExamples of Cycles

Economy Principles

Recycling of Subjects

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CyclesNegative (neg):

neg indefinite/adverb > neg particle > (neg particle)Definiteness

demonstrative > definite article > Case/non-generic > class marker

Agreementemphatic > pronoun > agreement

AuxiliaryA/P > M > T > C

Clausalpronoun > complementizer PP/Adv > Topic > C

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One Macroparameter à la Baker? a Macro-Cycle or Micro-Cycles?

Synthetic Analytic

+/-Polysynthesis, or SM vs. CI?

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Background on the Cycle/Spiral

• de Condillac, Tooke, A.W. von Schlegel, von Humboldt, Bopp

• more recently: Tauli 1958 and Hodge 1970

• Grammaticalization literature:word > clitic > affix > 0 (from Hopper & Traugott 2003)

• Formal approaches

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Economy Principles, e.g. van Gelderen 2004

Head Preference Principle (HPP):Be a head, rather than a phrase.Late Merge Principle (LMP): Merge as late as possible.Specifier Incorporation (SIP)Be incorporated if you are a phrase.Null hypothesis of language acquisition (=Faarlund 2005)

A string is a word with lexical content.

UG Principles: guidance to the child (in acquisition) and the adult (in the derivation)

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The Linguistic Cycle, e.g. the Negative Cycle

HPP

XP

Spec X'

na wiht X YP

not > n’t …

Late Merge

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Negative Cycle

(1)a. no/ne eOEb. ne (na wiht/not) OE, especially Southernc. (ne) not ME, especially Southernd. not LME-not/-n’t LME

Old English – South:(2)Næron 3e noht æmetti3e, ðeah ge wel ne dyden

not-were you not unoccupied. though you well not did`You were not unoccupied, though you did not do well'. (Pastoral Care, Cotton, Sweet, 206).

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Wh-cycle

a. CP b. CP þat C' (=SIP) C’ (=HPP)

se/þam C TP C TP (þe/þat) that

c. CP

wh- C'C TP

renewal that ...

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English relatives in OE and ME

OE se þe > þe or þæt:

(1) scyldwiga … se þe wel þenceþshield-fighter … the that well thinks/judges

`(Every sharp) shield fighter, who judges well' (Beowulf 287-9).

(2) as theo the duden with Godd al thet ha walden.

`as those who did with God all that they wanted’.

(Ancr. R. III 492)

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New relatives

(1) a laide de Dieu notre Seigneur, Qui vous douit bonne vie et longue.`With the help of God, our Lord, who gives us a good and long life' (Bekynton, from

Rydén, p. 131).

(2) be the grace of God, who haue yow in kepyng

`by the grace of God, who keeps you' (Paston Letters 410).

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DP Cycle

a. DP b. DPdem D' D' (=HPP)

D NP D NPart N

c. DP

D'D NP^ N

renewal

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Demonstratives

(1) demonstrative/adverb > definite article > Case/non-generic > class marker > 0

(2) gife to … þa munecas of þe mynstregive to … the monks of the abbey (Chron. E 656)

(3) To frowne vpon th'enrag'd Northumberland (2Henry4, Shakespeare)

(4) Oh they used to be ever so funny houses you know and in them days … They used to have big windows, but they used to a all be them there little tiny ones like that. (BNC - FYD 72)

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Aspect Cycle

a. ASPP b. ASPPASP‘ ASP'

ASP VP ASPVP

up V AP up ...up

c. ASPP

ASP'ASP VP

V APup

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Perfective aspectCycle:(1)adverb > affix > 0

One stage:(2)a. Elizabeth's accession allowed him to receive back his wife

(BNC-GTB938)b. a husband who changed his mind to receive his wife back

without ceremony (BNC-HTX2122).

- Pattern (a) has become more frequent in the recent period (Davies 2005), even with definite nominals: In the 100-million British National Corpus, receive occurs nine times in constructions such as (2a) and four times in constructions such as (2b) (twice with a pronoun and twice with a DP)

- The use of pronominal objects, typical for the first order, with these verbs has gone down too.

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Other such adverbs

evaporate out boost up

dissipate away issue out

spend down order up (from the library)

receive in offer up

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Late Merge?

• Chomsky (1995: 348): Late Merge accounts for the presence of expletive subjects over raising; the principle is used by Fox (2002) to account for Antecedent Contained Deletion and by Bhatt & Pancheva (2004) for the scope of degree clauses. Both Roberts & Roussou (2003) and van Gelderen (2004) use it to account for grammaticalization.

• Chomsky post 1995: IM = EM, no difference• It still seems salvageable but is it better to see

things in terms of features?

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Late Minimalism and Features• Architecture

– Syntax is inert– All is variation in the lexicon– Approaching UG from below– Computational Efficiency : SM and CI interface

• Features– uninterpretable = unvalued in the lexicon (Chomsky 2006:

12)

– probes value them; removed before CI transfer

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Feature Economy: uF as SM perfection; iF as CI perfection

Economy of Features (at Sensory Motor interface):Minimize the interpretable features in the derivation

Spec > Head > zerosemantic> interpretable > uninterpretable

(phi on N) (uphi on T)

Cycle goes from (a) to (b) to (a) …a) Movement links two positions and is thereby economical

(synthetic) = uninterpretable/EPP = PHON Economyb) Avoid syncretism; Iconicity is economical (analytic) =

semantic and interpretable features = SEM Economy

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and:

a. DP > b. DP

that/thoseD' D'

[u-phi] D NP DNP

[i-loc] N … the N

[phi] [u-phi] [phi]

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From V > AUX

VP TP

V DP > T VP

wolde [uCASE] would V DP[ACC] [phi] [uphi]

[uphi]

later loss of uphi

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From P > C

PP CP

P DP > CTP

after after[u-phi] [3S] (u-phi)

[ACC] [uACC]

In English, no phi, but Germanic C-agreement.

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Renewal at the end of the cycle

• Newmeyer 2006 notes that some grammaticalizations from noun/verb to affix can take as little as 1000 years, and wonders how there can be anything left to grammaticalize if this is the right scenario.

• Late Merge (Feature Economy), however, provides an answer for what the source of the replenishments are, namely lexical elements from lower in the tree. There are also borrowings and creative inventions through SIP.

• The Economy Principles do not provide a reason why certain languages/societies are more conservative than others, e.g. why the split infinitive has encountered such opposition by prescriptivists, and has kept to from grammaticalizing more.

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Internal and External Change• Jespersen: "the correct inference can only be that the

tendency towards ease may be at work in some cases, though not in all, because there are other forces which may at times neutralize it or prove stronger than it".

• Von der Gabelentz (1891/1901: 251/256): "Deutlichkeit" ('clarity') and "Bequemlichkeit" ('comfort').

• Chomsky (2006: 9): “The conflict between computational efficiency and ease of communication appears to be resolved, universally, in favor of computational efficiency to satisfy the semantic (CI) interface, lending further support to speculations about its primacy in language design”.

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The Subject Cycle

(1) demonstrative > third person pron > clitic > agrmnt(2) oblique > emphatic > first/second pron > clitic > agrmnt

Basque verbal prefixes n-, g-, z- = pronouns ni ‘I’, gu ‘we’, and zu ‘you’.

Pama-Nyungan, inflectional markers are derived from independent pronouns.

Iroquoian and Uto-Aztecan agreement markers derive from Proto-Iroquoian pronouns

Cree verbal markers ni-, ki-, o-/ø = pronouns niya, kiya, wiya.

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Subject vs Agreement

Theta XP/X fixed lang

Full pron yes XP no Hindi/Urdu, Japanese

Head pron yes X no French, (English)Agrmnt =PAL yes X yes Arabic, Navajo

Agreement no X yes Hindi/Urdu, English

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Subject Cycle: HPP and LMPTP TP

(=HPP)DP T’ DP T’pron T VP pron pron-T VP

… …

Urdu/Hindi, Japanese Coll French, CVC

TP[DP] T’ (=LMP)[pron] pron-T VP

Navajo, Spanish, Arabic

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Feature Economy and the Subject Cycle

emphatic > personal > agreement

[i-phi] [i-phi] [u-phi]

[i-Case] [uCase]

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Urdu/Hindi: pronoun = XP

(1)a. mẽy nee us ko dekha1S ERG him DAT saw

b. aadmii nee kitaab ko peRha man ERG book DAT read

(2) ham log `we people‘(3) mẽy or merii behn doonõ dilii mẽy rehtee hẽ

I and my sister both Delhi in living areNot a topic:(4) Mẽy too us seekahũuga

I-M FOC he to tell-FUT-3SM`I'll certainly tell him'. (Barker 1975, I, 213)

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English: in transition(a) Modification, (b) coordination, (c) position, (d) doubling, (e) loss of V-movement, (f) Code switching

Coordination (and Case)(1) Kitty and me were to spend the day.(2) %while he and she went across the hall.

Position(3) She’s very good, though I perhaps I shouldn’t say

so.(4) You maybe you've done it but have forgotten.(5) Me, I was flying economy, but the plane, … was

guzzling gas

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Doubling and cliticization(1) Me, I've tucking had it with the small place.(2) %Him, he ....(3) %Her, she shouldn’t do that (not

attested in the BNC)(4) *As for a dog, it should be happy.

CSE-FAC:uncliticized cliticized total

I 2037 685 (=25%) 2722you 1176 162 (=12.1%) 1338he 128 19 (=12.9%) 147

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Loss of V-movement and Code switching

(5) What I'm go'n do?

`What am I going to do'

(6) How she's doing?

`How is she doing‘

(7) *Hij went away Dutch-English CS

(8) Die buren went away

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Standard to Colloquial French(a) Modification, (b) coordination, (c) position, (d) doubling,

(e) loss of V-movement, (f) Code switching

(1) et c'est elle qui a eu la place.and it was her who has had the place

(2) *Je et tu ...(3) *je lis et ecris

(4) Moi, j’ai pas vu ça.(5) Et toi, tu aimes le rap?(6) on voit que lui il n'apprécie pas tellement la

politiqueone sees that him he not-appreciates not so the politics (LTSN corpus, p. 15-466)

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More doubling, loss of V-movement and code switching

(1)une omelette elle est comme ça Swiss Spoken

an omelette she is like this(2)c'est que chacun il a sa manière de ... Swiss Spoken

it is that everyone he has his way of (Fonseca-Greber 2000: 335; 338).

(3) Alors pourquoi moi aussi je n'aurais pas le droit d'enfumer les autres quelques minutes dans un bar? Then why me also I not-have not the right to fill-with-smoke the others some minutes in a bar

(4) tu vas où Colloquial French2S go where

(5) nta tu vas travailler Arabic-Frenchyou you go work(from Bentahila and Davies 1983: 313).

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Italian:

Venice(1) Ti te magni sempre

you you eat always(2) Nissun (*el) magna

Nobody he eats (both from Poletto 2004)Trentino(3) Nisun l'ha dit niente

nobody he-has said nothing`Nobody said anything'

(4) Tut l'è capita de noteverything it-has happened at night(both from Brandi & Cordin 1989:118)

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Why does `person’ start the cycle? Definiteness Hierarchy

1/2 > 3 > definite > indefinite/quantifier

Another instance: Mexican Spanish, overt Subject:1sg 24.4%

2sg 12.5%

3sg 8.2% (Lopez, 2007)

Poletto (2000): SCL replaces features on a verb; different positions.

Or: external/pragmatic?

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Pronominal Argument Languages, e.g. Navajo

(a) optionality of nominals and sentences with more than one nominal are rare. Therefore: nominals are adjuncts, sometimes with a different case system (e.g. Jelinek 1989)

(1) bínabinishtinb-í-na-bi-ni-sh-tin3-against-around-3-Q-1S-handle-IMPF`I teach it to him' (Y&M 1987: 223)

(2) (Diné bizaad) yíníshta'Navajo language 1-study`I am studying Navajo'.

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(b) Absence of anaphors and non-referential quantified DPs and (c) minimal embedding

(1) má'ii ałtso dibé baayijah

coyote all sheep 3-3-ran-away

`The sheep ran away from all the coyotes' or

`All the sheep ran away from the coyotes'.

(Jelinek 2001: 18).

(2) honeesná-nígíí yoodlá3.win-NOM 3.believe

`He believes he won' or

`he believes the winner' (Willie 1991: 178).

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Loss of PAL-hood: Warlpiri > Dyirbal

PAs in Warlpiri, marked on AUX:

(1) ngajulu-rlu ka-rna-ngku nyuntu-0 nya-n

I-ERG PRES-1NOM-2ACC you-ABS see-Non.PST

`I see you' (Jelinek 1983: 80; Hale 1973: 328)

Dyirbal marks the dependents

(2) yabu numa-ŋgu bura-n

mother-ABS father-ERG saw

`Father saw mother' (Jelinek 1987: 102).

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Old English > Middle English

Pro-drop and topics:(1) ær ðon ðe hona creawa ðriga mec onsæcest

before that that rooster crows thrice me-ACC deny-2S`You will deny me three times before the rooster crows' (Lindisfarne Gospel, Matthew 26.75).

(2) As for the secunde þinge wiche longith to a religious tree þat is plantid in religioun: is watering

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No clear reflexives/quantifiers

(1) Ic on earde bad | ... ne me swor fela

I on earth was-around ... not me-DAT swore wrong (Beowulf 2736-8)

(2) Ealle we sind gebroðra ... and we ealle cweðað

All we are brothers ... and we all say

(Aelfric Hom I 54.8, from Carlson 1978)

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So far: Subject Cycle= HPP and LMP

TP TP (=HPP)DP T’ DP T’pron T VP pron pron-T VP

Urdu/Hindi, Japanese Coll French, CVC

TP[DP] T’ (=LMP)[pron] pron-T VP

Navajo, Spanish, Arabic

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Source of renewals: emphatic

(1) ‘a:ñi ‘añ s-ba:bigǐ ñeok

I 1S-IMPF slowly speak-IMPF

`I was speaking slowly’. (Zepeda 1983)

(2) shí éiyá Elly yinishyé

I TOP Elly 1S-called

`I am called Elly'.

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Actual Mechanism• stage (a): the pronoun moves from specifier of

vP to specifier of a higher FP• stage (b): the subject pronoun moves from vP-

internal position. At what point is the pronoun a head? Chomsky (1995: 249) says "a clitic raises from its [theta]-position, and attaches to an inflectional head. In its [theta]-position, the clitic is an XP; attachment to a head requires that it be an Xo".

• stage (c): pronouns in the higher position are reanalyzed as agreement markers (=LMP)

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Old French Standard Fr Coll French

iCase uCase uphi

iphi iphi

New element is introduced whose semantic features are used!

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The challenge: the dual nature of N and V: need for +/- interpretable f

DP: Theta > discourse

(position > morphology)

V: Theta and TMA

Cycle goes from (a) to (b) to (a) …

a) Movement links two positions and is thereby economical (=synthetic) = uninterpretable/EPP

b) Avoid syncretism; Iconicity is economical (=analytic) = semantic and interpretable features

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Conclusions

• description of cyclical changes as Economy– Negative, Demonstrative, (Agreement), and

Perfective Cycles– Clause marking through

• wh• P• VP adverb

• Reason:– HPP and LMP, or– Semantic features are reanalyzed as grammatical

• Grammaticalization (SM Economy) vs renewal(CI Economy)