The present paper argues for a diachronic approach to synchronic gradience which is based on a mismatch between the syntax and the semantics of constructions. Another central claim made in this paper is that syntactic gradience is not confined to morphosyntactic overlap but may be constituted by semantic overlap (pace Aarts 2007). More precisely, it is argued that there is gradience between constructions with genitives (John’s father, a spare visitor’s chair) and noun+noun constructions (theatre ticket, Bush administration), which stems from their sharing certain semantic features, while their morphosyntax remains distinct. Based on a quantitative corpus analysis it is shown that the constructions gradually come to adopt semantic features of the other construction over time. This process is facilitated by the presence of various ‘bridging constructions’ in the history of English.
2022. Revisiting Gradience in Diachronic Construction Grammar: PPs and the Complement-Adjunct Distinction in the History of English. Zeitschrift für Anglistik und Amerikanistik 70:3 ► pp. 301 ff.
Vangaever, Jasper
2021. On la voit se développant : la construction progressive présentative du latin tardif à l’ancien français. Langue française N° 209:1 ► pp. 63 ff.
BREBAN, TINE & JULIA KOLKMANN
2019. Special issue: Different perspectives on proper noun modifiers. English Language and Linguistics 23:4 ► pp. 749 ff.
BREBAN, TINE, JULIA KOLKMANN & JOHN PAYNE
2019. The impact of semantic relations on grammatical alternation: an experimental study of proper name modifiers and determiner genitives. English Language and Linguistics 23:4 ► pp. 797 ff.
ROSENBACH, ANETTE
2019. On the (non-)equivalence of constructions with determiner genitives and noun modifiers in English. English Language and Linguistics 23:4 ► pp. 759 ff.
ROSENBACH, ANETTE
2024. On expanding accountability in the study of genitive variation: a reply to Biber, Szmrecsanyi, Reppen & Larsson (2023). English Language and Linguistics► pp. 1 ff.
BREBAN, TINE
2018. Proper names used as modifiers: a comprehensive functional analysis. English Language and Linguistics 22:3 ► pp. 381 ff.
2014. La réanalyse syntaxique et le conflit formaliste-fonctionnaliste en linguistique. Langages N° 196:4 ► pp. 37 ff.
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