Morphological and syntactic grammaticalization in the history of French

John Kenney Johnson, Purdue University

Abstract

This study examines two types of grammaticalization processes in the history of French. Morphological grammaticalization is manifested in the cliticization of the subject pronouns in Old and Middle French and their subsequent morphologization as agreement markers in Modern Spoken French. Syntactic grammaticalization is manifested in the preverbal slot's shift from having a discourse function in Old French to having a syntactic function in Middle French as part of an overall shift from a V2 system to an SVO system. The modern spoken language features pragmatically driven dislocation structures which work in conjunction with the agreement markers in a system quite distinct from that of the modern standard language. Although these cases of grammaticalization do not involve the same types of structures or the same types of diachronic processes, they both represent instances of a non-grammatical form becoming more grammatical. This study, therefore, supports the claim that grammaticalization is a distinct diachronic phenomenon despite the fact that it does not involve a consistent set of diachronic processes. Grammaticalization theory also provides an alternative perspective for analyzing clitics. Recent clitic theories provide a tool for analyzing clitic subject pronouns in phonological and syntactic terms. The apparent syntactic decliticization of subject pronouns in embedded clauses during the late Old French and early Middle French periods, however, throws into question whether syntactic and phonological clitics can be treated in the same manner. Furthermore, the preverbal and postverbal clitic subject pronouns do not exhibit similar properties from the Middle French period on. These facts indicate the limitations of clitic theories which focus exclusively on phonological and morphosyntactic phenomena. Grammaticalization theory examines changes in an item's form, function and sentential relationships in terms of a continuum between lexical autonomy and morphological dependence. The application of grammaticalization theory thus demonstrates that an effective analysis of the clitic subject pronouns involves not only a morphosyntactic and phonological analysis, but also an analysis in terms of degrees of lexicality or grammaticality both formally and functionally.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Brown, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Linguistics|European history

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