Cover not available
Article published In:
The Role of Pragmatics in Cyclic Language Change
Edited by Maj-Britt Mosegaard Hansen
[Journal of Historical Pragmatics 21:2] 2020
► pp. 289–314

Future markers in Western Romance

Cyclic change, synchronic variation and diachronic competition

| Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich

In this article, which examines the cyclic evolution of future markers in Western Romance (mainly French and Spanish), I make use of the “satellite model” in the version proposed by Koch and Oesterreicher (1996) to capture the complex interplay between functional change, synchronic variation and sociolinguistic evolution. This model conceives of linguistic cycles as push-chains. Thus, I will argue, young future markers originally arise from argumentative patterns that are aimed at validating announcements concerning the speaker’s projected actions. The rationale behind these mechanisms is pragmatic efficiency rather than the functioning of the language system itself. Thus, linguistic systems usually contain more items than are technically needed to keep the language system operative. In the categories of the satellite model, a certain number of younger constructions (“satellites”) exist side-by-side with a canonical construction (i.e., a functionally and sociolinguistically unmarked item), which one of the former may eventually oust from its privileged position. As I will show by sketching the evolution of the numerous future markers of peninsular Spanish from the seventeenth to the twentieth century, this perspective allows a fresh look at the evolution of cycles. More often than not, the competition between the canonical form and its satellites does not cause the former’s replacement by the latter; rather, it normally ends with the obsolescence of one the satellites involved. The eventual replacement of the canonical form by a satellite – that is, the completion of a full cycle – represents a very special (and relatively rare) case.

Keywords: argumentative pattern, assertive force, overuse, register variation, satellite model, source determination
Article outline
  • 1.Cyclic change, layering and emerging systems
  • 2.Why do new future markers arise?
  • 3.Pre-grammatical future constructions
  • 4.The satellite model (Koch and Oesterreicher 1996)
  • 5.Language change as reordering of satellites: Future constructions in the history of modern Spanish
  • 6.Instead of a conclusion: What drives cyclic change?
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 3 March 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jhp.00045.det
References
Baker, Philip and Chris Corne
1982 Isle de France Creole: Affinities and Origins. Ann Arbor: Karoma Publishers.Google Scholar
Benveniste, Émile
1974 Problèmes de linguistique générale [‘Problems in General Linguistics’]. (Volume II1.) Paris: Gallimard.Google Scholar
Berschin, Helmut
1987 “Futuro analítico y futuro sintético en el español peninsular colombiano” [‘Analytic and Synthetic Future in Peninsular and Columbian Spanish’]. Lingüística Española Actual 91: 101–109.Google Scholar
Blas Arroyo, José Luis
2008 “The variable expression of future tense in Peninsular Spanish: The present (and future) of inflectional forms in the Spanish spoken in a bilingual region”. Language Variation and Change 201: 85–126. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bybee, Joan, Revere Perkins and William Pagliuca
1994 The Evolution of Grammar: Tense, Aspect and Modality in the Languages of the World. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Cartagena, Nelson
1994 “Das Tempussystem der spanischen Gegenwartssprache” [‘The Tense System of Contemporary Spanish’]. In Rolf Thieroff and Joachim Ballweg (eds), Tense Systems in European Languages, 173–190. (Volume 11). Tübingen: Niemeyer.Google Scholar
2017 “Grammaire, sémantique et pragmatique des temps du futur en espagnol” [‘Grammar, semantics and pragmatics of future tenses in Spanish’]. In Laura Baranzini (ed.), Le futur dans les langues romanes [‘The Future in the Romance Languages’], 105–132. Frankfurt, M.: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Company Company, Concepción
2006 “Tiempos de formación romance II. Los futuros y condicionales” [‘Tense Markers of Romance Origin II: Futures and Conditionals’]. In Company Company, Concepción (ed.), Sintaxis histórica de la lengua española [‘Historical Syntax of the Spanish Language’], 349–418. (Volume 11.) Mexico: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.Google Scholar
Corne, Chris
1977 Seychelles Creole Grammar: Elements for Indian Ocean Proto-Creole Reconstruction. Tübingen: Narr.Google Scholar
Coseriu, Eugenio
1976 Das romanische Verbalsystem [‘The Verbal System of the Romance Languages’]. (Edited by Hansbert Bertsch.) Tübingen: Narr.Google Scholar
Damoiseau, Robert
1987 “Situation de communication et fonctionnement de la langue en créole haïtien” [‘Communicative Situation and Language Functioning in Haitian Creole’]. Études Créoles 101: 90–106.Google Scholar
Detges, Ulrich and Richard Waltereit
2016 “Grammaticalization and pragmaticalization”. In Susann Fischer and Christoph Gabriel (eds), Manual of Grammatical Interfaces in Romance, 635–657. Berlin and Boston: De Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Detges, Ulrich
1999 “Wie entsteht Grammatik? Kognitive und pragmatische Determinanten der Grammatikalisierung von Tempusmarkern” [‘How Does Grammar Come About? Cognitive and Pragmatic Aspects of the Grammaticalization of Tense Markers’]. In Jürgen Lang and Ingrid Neumann-Holzschuh (eds), Reanalyse und Grammatikalisierung in denromanischen Sprachen [‘Reanalysis and Grammaticalization in the Romance Languages’], 31–52. Tübingen: Niemeyer.Google Scholar
2004 “How Cognitive is Grammaticalization? The History of the Catalan perfet perifràstic ”. In Olga Fischer, Muriel Norde and Harry Perridon (eds), Up and Down the Cline – The Nature of Grammaticalization, 211–227. Amsterdam: Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Díaz Peralta, Marina
1997 “Variación sintáctica y estilo discursivo: La expresión de la futuridad en el español de las Palmas de Gran Canaria” [‘Syntactic Variation and Discourse Style: The Expression of Futurity in the Spanish of Las Palmas/Gran Canaria’]. Lingüística Española Actual 191: 185–197.Google Scholar
Fleischman, Suzanne
1982 The Future in Thought and Language: Diachronic Evidence from Romance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
1983 “From Pragmatics to Grammar: Diachronic Reflections on Complex Pasts and Futures in Romance”. Lingua 601: 183–214. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Givón, Talmy
1976 “Topic, Pronoun and Grammatical Agreement”. In Charles N. Li (ed.), Subject and Topic, 149–185. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
1979 On Understanding Grammar. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Gougenheim, Georges
1971 [1929] Étude sur les périphrases verbales de la langue française [‘Studies on the Verbal Periphrases of the French Language’]. Paris: Nizet.Google Scholar
Heath, Jeffrey
1998 “Hermit Crabs: Formal Renewal of Morphology by Phonologically Mediated Affix Substitution”. Language 741: 728–759. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Heine, Bernd
1993 Auxiliaries: Cognitive Forces and Grammaticalization. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
1997 Possession. Cognitive Sources, Forces and Grammaticalization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Helland, Hans Petter
1995 “Futur simple et futur périphrastique: du sens aux emplois” [‘Simple Future and Periphrastic Future: From Meaning to Usage’]. Revue Romane 301: 3–26.Google Scholar
Hernández, César
1971 Sintaxis española [‘Spanish Syntax’]. Valladolid: Colegio de España.Google Scholar
Hopper, Paul J.
1991 “On Some Principles of Grammaticization”. In Elizabeth C. Traugott and Bernd Heine (eds), Approaches to Grammaticalization, 17–35. (Volume 11: Focus on Theoretical and Methodological Issues.) Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Koch, Peter and Wulf Oesterreicher
1996 “Sprachwandel und expressive Mündlichkeit” [‘Linguistic Change and Oral Expressivity’]. Zeitschrift für Literaturwissenschaft und Linguistik 26 (102): 64–96. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Koch, Peter
1995 Zukunft und Mündlichkeit. Zu Genese und Verlust von Futurbildungen in romanischen Varietäten [‘Future and Orality: On the Rise and Loss of Future Contructions within Certain Romance Varieties’]. Paper presented in Bamberg 11/28/1995.
1997 “Diglossie in Frankreich?” [‘Diglossia in France?’]. In Winfried Engler (ed.), Frankreich an der Freien Universität [‘France at the Free University of Berlin’], 219–249. Stuttgart: Steiner.Google Scholar
Kuteva, Tania A.
1995 “The Auxiliation Constraint and Reference”. In Richard Geiger (ed.), Reference in Multidisciplinary Perspective: Philosophical Object, Cognitive Subject, Intersubjective Process, 374–386. Hildesheim: Olms.Google Scholar
2001 Auxiliation: An Enquiry into the Nature of Grammaticalization. Oxford, Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Laurendeau, Paul
2000 “L’alternance futur simple/futur périphrastique: Une hypothèse modale” [‘The Alternation between Simple Future and Periphrastic Future: A Modal Hypothesis’]. Verbum 221: 277–292.Google Scholar
Lehmann, Christian
2002 Thoughts on Grammaticalization. Erfurt: Seminar für Sprachwissenschaft.Google Scholar
Lindschouw, Jan
2017 “Tense, Aspect, Mood”. In Andreas Dufter and Elisabeth Stark (eds), Manual of Romance Morphosyntax and Syntax, 397–448. Berlin and Boston: De Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lope Blanch, Juan Miguel
1983 “La reducción del paradigma verbal en el español de México” [‘The Reduction of the Verbal Paradigm in the Spanish of Mexico’]. In Juan M. Lope Blanch (ed.), Estudios sobre el español de México [‘Studies on the Spanish of Mexico’], 145–159. Mexico: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.Google Scholar
Lorenz, Bettina
1989 Konkurrenz zwischen dem futur simple und dem futur périphrastique im gesprochenen Französisch der Gegenwart [‘Competition between the Simple Future and the Periphrastic Future in Contemporary French’]. Münster: Kleinheinrich.Google Scholar
Lorenz, Sabine
1988 Die Konkurrenz zwischen dem futur simple und dem futur périphrastique im geschriebenen Französisch der Gegenwart. Münster: Kleinheinrich.Google Scholar
Ludwig, Ralph
1988 Modalität und Modus im gesprochenen Französisch [‘Modality and Mood in Spoken French’]. Tübingen: Gunter Narr.Google Scholar
Maingueneau, Dominique
1999 Précis de Grammaire pour les Concours [‘Grammar Handbook for State Exams’]. Paris: Dunod.Google Scholar
Massot, Benjamin
2003 Éléments linguistiques pour une vision diglossique du français contemporain [‘Linguistic Elements for a Diglossia Account of Contemporary French’]. Mém. de D.E.A., Université Paris 8 Vincennes. Available online at: [URL]
Meier, Harri, Leopoldo Sáez Godoy, Klaus Hunnius, Raúl Avila and Larry Grimes
1968 “Futur und Zukunft im Spanischen” [‘Future and Futurity in Spanish’]. Archiv für das Studium der neueren Sprachen und Literaturen 119 (204): 332–353.Google Scholar
Patard, Adeline, Walter de Mulder and Natalia Grabar
2017 “Le futur synthétique français a-t-il eu un sens intentionnel?” [‘Does the Synthetic Future of French Have an Intentional Meaning?’]. In Laura Baranzini (ed.), Le futur dans les langues romanes [‘The Future in the Romance Languages’], 15–47. Frankfurt, M.: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Pitloun, Petr
2005 “La perífrasis ir a + infinitivo y la expresión de la posterioridad en el habla culta de Costa Rica” [‘The Periphrasis ir a + Infinitive and the Expression of Posteriority in Costa Rican Educated Speech’]. Filología y Lingüística 311: 233–250.Google Scholar
Poplack, Shana and Nathalie Dion
2009 “Prescription vs. Praxis. The Evolution of Future Temporal Reference in French”. Language 851: 557–587. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Reed, Cory A.
1991 “Cervantes and the Novelization of Drama: Tradition and Innovation in the Entremeses ”. Bulletin of the Cervantes Society of America 11 (1): 61–86.Google Scholar
Reinöhl, Uta and Nikolaus P. Himmelmann
2017 “Renewal: A Figure of Speech or a Process Sui Generis?”, Language 931: 381–413. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rohlfs, Gerhard
1949 Historische Grammatik der italienischen Sprache und ihrer Mundarten [‘Historical Grammar of the Italian Language and its Vernaculars’]. (Volume II1: Formenlehre und Syntax.) Bern: Francke.Google Scholar
Schlupp, Daniel
1997 Modalités prédicatives, modalités aspectuelles et auxiliaires en créole à base lexicale française de la Guyane française. XVIIIe – XXe siècles [‘Predicative Modalities, Aspectual Modalities and Auxiliaries in the French-Based Creole of French Guyana. 18th-20th Century’]. Tübingen: Niemeyer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Schrott, Angela
1997 Futurität im Französischen der Gegenwart. Semantik und Pragmatik der Tempora der Zukunft [‘Futurity in Contemporary French. Semantics and Pragmatics of the Future Tenses’]. Tübingen: Narr.Google Scholar
Searle, John R.
1975 “A Taxonomy of Illocutionary Acts”. In John Gunderson (ed.), Language, Mind and Knowledge, 344–379. Minneapolis: University of Minneapolis Press.Google Scholar
Sedano, Mercedes
1994 “El futuro morfológico y la expresión ir a + infinitivo en el español hablado de Venezuela” [‘The Morphological Future and the Expression ir a + Infinitive in Venezuelan Spoken Spanish’]. Verba 211: 225–240.Google Scholar
Silva Corvalán, Carmen and Tracy Terrell
1989 “Notas sobre la expresión de futuridad en el español del Caribe” [‘Notes on the Expression of Futurity in Caribbean Spanish’]. Hispanic Linguistics 21: 191–208.Google Scholar
Söll, Ludwig
1968 “Synthetisches und analytisches Futur im modernen Spanischen” [‘Synthetic and Analytic Future in Modern Spanish’]. Romanische Forschungen 801: 239–248.Google Scholar
Togeby, Knud
1982 Grammaire française [‘French Grammar’]. (Volume 21: Les formes personnelles du verbe [‘The Personal Forms of the Verb’].) Copenhagen: Akad. Forl.Google Scholar
Valesio, Paolo
1968 “The Romance Synthetic Future Pattern and its First Attestations (i)”. Lingua 201: 113–161. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Von der Gabelentz, Georg
1901 [1891] Die Sprachwissenschaft: ihre Aufgaben, Methoden und bisherigen Ergebnisse [‘Linguistics: Its Tasks, Methods and Present Results’]. Leipzig: Weigel.Google Scholar
Von Wartburg, Walther
1970 [1943] Einführung in Problematik und Methodik der Sprachwissenschaft [‘Introduction into Issues and Methodologies in Linguistics’]. Tübingen: Niemeyer.Google Scholar
Werner, Edeltraud
1980 Die Verbalperiphrase im Mittelfranzösischen. Eine semantisch- syntaktische Analyse [‘The Verbal Periphrases in Middle French: A Semantic and Syntactic Account’]. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.Google Scholar
Westmoreland, Maurice
1997 “The dialectalization of Spanish future tense usage”. Word 481: 375–395. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wilmet, Marc
1970 Le système de l’indicatif en Moyen Français [‘The System of the Indicative in Middle French’]. Genève: Droz.Google Scholar
Yllera, Alicia
1980 Sintaxis histórica del verbo español: las perífrasis medievales [‘Historical Syntax of the Spanish Verb: The Medieval Periphrases’]. Zaragoza: Departamento de Filología Francesa.Google Scholar
Zeman, Sonja
2015 “The Elementary Particles of Distance in Space, Time, Grammar, and Discourse”. In Barbara Sonnenhauser and Anastasia Meermann (eds), Distance in Language: Grounding a Metaphor, 7–36. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.Google Scholar
2019 “The Emergence of Viewpoints in Multiple Perspective Constructions”. In Caroline Gentens, An van Linden, Maria Sol Sansiñena Pascual and Stef Spronck (eds), Perspective Shifts, special issue of Pragmatics 29 (2): 226–249.Google Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 1 other publications

Mosegaard Hansen, Maj-Britt
2020. Introduction. Journal of Historical Pragmatics 21:2 ► pp. 165 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 27 april 2021. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.