TY - GEN
T1 - The generalization of preposition para via fusion and ensuing loss of compositionality
AU - Bauman, Joseph
AU - Cacoullos, Rena Torres
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 John Benjamins Publishing Company.
PY - 2016
Y1 - 2016
N2 - This study traces two shifts in the distribution of the Spanish preposition para 'for, in order to': first, a drop in its allative uses and second, its replacement of the older preposition por 'for' with purposive infinitives. These distributional changes of the innovative para-across its own contexts of occurrence as well as in its variation with the older por-demonstrate the crosslinguistic allativeto- purposive grammaticalization path. Frequent co-occurrence of the source elements, por and a, foments their coalescence, reflected in changes in the orthographic/phonological form of the fused preposition as it loses structural analyzability. Semantic compositionality, whereby there was a discernable semantic contribution of the allative a component, is also lost as early prepositional objects designating persons decline. We find this account of the rise of para, based on gradual loss of analyzability and compositionality, to be compatible with the quantitative patterns and more insightful than an opaque and implicitly abrupt notion of reanalysis.
AB - This study traces two shifts in the distribution of the Spanish preposition para 'for, in order to': first, a drop in its allative uses and second, its replacement of the older preposition por 'for' with purposive infinitives. These distributional changes of the innovative para-across its own contexts of occurrence as well as in its variation with the older por-demonstrate the crosslinguistic allativeto- purposive grammaticalization path. Frequent co-occurrence of the source elements, por and a, foments their coalescence, reflected in changes in the orthographic/phonological form of the fused preposition as it loses structural analyzability. Semantic compositionality, whereby there was a discernable semantic contribution of the allative a component, is also lost as early prepositional objects designating persons decline. We find this account of the rise of para, based on gradual loss of analyzability and compositionality, to be compatible with the quantitative patterns and more insightful than an opaque and implicitly abrupt notion of reanalysis.
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UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85091306886&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1075/rllt.9.03bau
DO - 10.1075/rllt.9.03bau
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85091306886
T3 - Romance Languages and Linguistic Theory
SP - 39
EP - 58
BT - Romance Linguistics 2013. Selected papers from the 43rd Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages (LSRL), New York, 17�19 April, 2013
A2 - Christina, Christina
A2 - Den Dikken, Marcel
A2 - Montoya, Ignacio L.
A2 - O'Neill, Teresa
PB - John Benjamins Publishing Company
ER -