Skip to main content

Ulrich DETGES

Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Institut fur Romanische Philologie, Faculty Member

Followers

402

Following

14

Co-authors

2

Public Views

Address: Schellingstr. 3, D-80799 München, Germany

less

InterestsView All (8)

Uploads

Papers by Ulrich DETGES

Future markers in Western Romance. Cyclic change, synchronic variation and diachronic competition

in: Maj-Britt Hansen (ed.): The Role of Pragmatics in Cyclic Language Change. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 289-314 (= Journal of Historical Pragmatics 21:2, Special Issue), 2021

In this article, which examines the cyclic evolution of future markers in Western Romance (mainly... more 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 e ciency 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 o en 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.

Cognitive Semantics in the Romance Languages

Submitted to appear in: Michele Loporcaro & Francesco Gardani (eds.), Oxford Encyclopedia of Romance Linguistics.

Cognitive Semantics is an approach to the study of linguistic meaning. It is based on the assumpt... more Cognitive Semantics is an approach to the study of linguistic meaning. It is based on the assumption that the human linguistic capacity is part of our cognitive abilities, and that language in general and meaning in particular can therefore be better understood by taking into account the cognitive mechanisms that control the conceptual and perceptual processing of extra-linguistic reality. Issues central to CS are a) the notion of prototype and its role in the description of language, b) the nature of linguistic meaning and c) the functioning of different types of semantic relations. The question concerning the nature of meaning is an issue that is particularly controversial between CS on the one hand and structuralist and generative approaches on the other hand: is linguistic meaning conceptual, i.e. part of our encyclopedic knowledge (as is claimed by CS), or is it autonomous, i.e. based on abstract and language-specific features? According to CS, the most important types of semantic relations are metaphor, metonymy and different kinds of taxonomic relations, which, in turn, can be further broken down into more basic associative relations such as similarity, contiguity and contrast. These play a central role not only in polysemy and word formation, i.e. in the lexicon, but also in the grammar.

En tout cas. Zur Diachronie eines Diskursmarkers

Nicklaus Martina; Nora Wirtz, Wiebke Langer, Marcella Costa & Karin Ewert-Kling (Hgg.). 2018. Lexeme, Phraseme, Konstruktionen: Aktuelle Beiträge zu Lexikologie und Phraseologie. Festschrift für Elmar Schafroth. Franfurt a. M.: Peter Lang.

The discourse marker en tout cas 'in any case', 'anyway' is used in modern French both as a refor... more The discourse marker en tout cas 'in any case', 'anyway' is used in modern French both as a reformulative connector and as a sequencer. As I will show, these functions reflect two distinct stages of this item's diachronic evolution. En tout cas, originally used as a manner adverbial, was first conventionalized as a reformulative connector before coming to be used as a sequencing device. This development is insufficiently described as a succession of two semantic changes concerning just the item en tout cas. Rather, each step in the latter's diachronic evolution was triggered by the conventionalization of a new argumentative schema for which en tout cas provided a constructional frame. As I will argue, this change is not an instance of grammaticalization as captured by Lehmann's 2002 parameter model, but is more adequately conceived of as lexical constructionalization.

Insubordination, Abtönung, and the next move in interaction. Main-clause-initial puisque in French

[to appear in Oscar Loureda & Salvador Pons Bordería, eds. 2018, DiscoursePragmatic Change in Romance. Leiden: Brill

Main-clause-initial puisque 'but' (?) is an insubordinated erstwhile causal conjunction. It signa... more Main-clause-initial puisque 'but' (?) is an insubordinated erstwhile causal conjunction. It signals that the information introduced by it should be known to the addressee. By doing so, puisque conveys an act of refutation directed against the immediately preceding utterance. As has been noted in the literature, insubordinated erstwhile conjunctions bear a close functional resemblance to German modal particles in that they integrate speech acts into the common ground — a function which we term abtönung. However, in spite of being eligible for abtönung, main-clause-initial puisque is basically a discourse marker rather than a modal particle; as we will show, its usage depends heavily on the sequential ordering of the discourse, whereas constraints of this kind play no role for modal particles. It has often been assumed that the diachronic mechanism behind insubordination is main-clause-ellipsis. However, based on Ford (1993) and Diessel & Hetterle (2011) we will argue that insubordinated puisque was brought about by a reanalysis in elaborative contexts. In the terms proposed by Detges & Waltereit (2016: 653), main-clause-initial puisque emerged from contexts where it served to negotiate the next move in the joint construction of discourse. It is this function that ultimately makes it a discourse-marker, despite its suitability for abtönung.

Te lo tengo dicho muchas veces. Resultatives between coercion, relevance and reanalysis.

To appear in: Ehmer, Oliver & Malte Rosemeyer, Malte: Inferences in interaction in language change. Open Linguistics, Special issue, 2018

This paper deals with the question of how and why resultative constructions change into anteriors... more This paper deals with the question of how and why resultative constructions change into anteriors. This discussion will be based on synchronic data concerning tener + past participle, a resultative construction used in modern Spanish. One of the latter's most frequent is te lo tengo dicho 'I have (already) told you'. This is remarkable since decir 'to tell' is a non-transitional verb; te lo tengo dicho thus violates the requirement that resultatives should only combine with transitional verbs. In the literature, such mismatches between the semantics of a given construction and the meaning of its lexical filler have been claimed to normally trigger coercion, i.e. an inferential repair mechanism giving rise to special meaning effects. Thus, coercion – despite being conceived as a purely synchronic mechanism – is a prime candidate for an explanation of the change from resultative to anterior. In line with this hypothesis, occurrences of te lo tengo dicho are attested in my corpus where the latter is specified by quantifying adverbials such as muchas veces 'many times'. However, speaker judgements indiacte that even te lo tengo dicho muchas veces is not an iterative anterior construction, but still a resultative. Based on synchronic data taken from the CREA-corpus, it will be shown that in the vast majority of its occurrences, te lo tengo dicho is part of an interactional discourse pattern where certain argumentative effects based on its resultative meaning are highly relevant. Crucially, therefore, in such "strong" uses a coercive shift towards an anterior meaning is excluded. On a more abstract level, it will be shown that coercion is controlled by pragmatic factors; in the case of te lo tengo dicho muchas veces, conceptual/semantic plausibility is systematically overridden by pragmatic relevance.

Insubordinated puisque in French. Grammaticalization, De-Grammaticalization, Reanalysis?

JournaLIPP 5 (= Martin Eberl, Sara Ingrosso, Enkhmaa Narmandakh, Sebastian Ortner, Katharina Scholtz, Aleksander Wiatr (eds.): Grammatikalisierung in interdisziplinärer Perspektive - Grammaticalization from an interdisciplinary perspective).

In Modern French, main-clause initial puisque is a discourse-marker which coexists with a homonym... more In Modern French, main-clause initial puisque is a discourse-marker which coexists with a homonymous subordinating causal connective. Diachronically, it has emerged from the latter through a process of insubordi¬nation. It is often assumed that the diachronies of discourse makers can be meaningfully described as grammaticalization processes. This view has been challenged by Detges & Waltereit (2009, 2016) on the grounds that grammar in the narrow sense (e.g. inflectional mor¬phology) on the one hand and discourse markers and modal particles on the other are the outcome of different kinds of diachronic processes. For sentence-initial puisque, this question is further complicated by the fact that insubordination has been claimed to be a counter-example to basic assumptions of established grammaticalization theo¬ries. Against this backdrop, this article pursues two objectives. Firstly, an account will be given of the diachronic mechanisms that turned the subordinating connective puis¬que into a main-clause-initial item. It will be shown that the emergence of main-clause-initial puisque was brought about by a pragmatically motivated reanalysis whereby a frequent usage-effect was conventionalized as the construction's new meaning. This change took place in elaborative discourse contexts (D’Hertefelt & Verstraete 2014) where subordinating puisque was used to negotiate the next move in discourse building. Secondly (and more importantly), I will discuss the question of whether this process can be meaningfully classified as an instance of grammaticalization.

Strong Pronouns in Modern Spoken French. Cliticization, Constructionalization, Grammaticalization?

Unlike the subject clitics of Modern French (je, tu, il, etc.), the strong (tonic or disjoint) pr... more Unlike the subject clitics of Modern French (je, tu, il, etc.), the strong (tonic or disjoint) pronouns (moi, toi, lui, etc.) have received little attention in the literature. In this article, I show that in spoken French 1s moi, unlike 3s lui, has in fact undergone both semantic bleaching and heavy prosodic erosion and has therefore progressed along Lehmann's (2002 [1982]) parameters of grammaticalization. As will be argued, this person-asymmetry is rooted in the fact that moi, unlike lui, is largely used as a discourse-structuring device. Based on a phonetic analysis, I show that the main factor underlying the prosodic weakening of left-detached moi is string frequency, i.e. the degree of predictability of the element immediately following moi. The erosion of moi in spoken French is particularly strong when it is followed by the clitic 1s je; it is even stronger in those cases where moi introduces a stance-verb expression of the type moi je trouve que ... “I think that …”. However, despite the massive effects produced by string frequency, the prosodic, distributional and discourse-pragmatic data presented here do not support the view that the prosodically weakened variants of moi instantiate a construction that is distinct from non-clitic moi.

Grammatikalisierung. Eine kognitiv-pragmatische Theorie, dargestellt am Beispiel romanischer und anderer Sprachen (Ms. Tübingen 2001)

This work - an unpublished habilitation thesis - provides an overview of grammaticalization cycle... more This work - an unpublished habilitation thesis - provides an overview of grammaticalization cycles in the Romance languages, including negation, tense, case, person and adverb-derivation. It it argued that grammaticalization is a relatively specific and homogeneous type of change distinct from other types of change, including reanalysis and pragmaticalization.

Argument inheritance as a metonymic effect

Nominalization combines morphological aspects (the derivation of nouns from verbs) with syntactic... more Nominalization combines morphological aspects (the derivation of nouns from verbs) with syntactic ones (argument structure/valency). The notion of argument inheritance captures the intuition that both aspects seem to obey the same (syntactic) regularities. However, as will be argued in the present paper, this impression is incorrect. Although morphological derivation and nominal valency make use of the same conceptual knowledge (which explains the apparent similarities between them), both types of linguistic structure serve different functional purposes and therefore differ in the way in which this knowledge is exploited linguistically. The metonymy-based account proposed in this paper provides simple explanations for a wide range of problems concerning morphological as well as syntactic aspects of nominalization. This will be illustrated with particular reference to the so-called activity model proposed by Schwarze (1995). Das Phänomen der Nominalisierung beinhaltet morphologische Gesichtpunkte (die Derivation von Nomina aus Verben) ebenso wie syntaktische (insbesondere Probleme der nominalen Valenz/Argumentstruktur). Der Begriff der Argumentvererbung gibt die Intuition wieder, dass beide Aspekte der Nominalisierung denselben (syntaktischen) Regelmäßigkeiten folgen. In der vorliegenden Arbeit möchte ich jedoch zeigen, dass dieser Eindruck unzutreffend ist. Obwohl morphologische Derivation und syntaktische Valenz dasselbe konzeptuelle Wissen voraussetzen (was die scheinbaren Ähnlichkeiten zwischen ihnen erklärt), erfüllen sie völlig unterschiedliche Funktionen; aus diesem Grund unterscheiden sie sich in der Art und Weise, wie das konzeptuelle Wissen jeweils sprachlich genutzt wird. Auf der Grundlage der hier dargelegten Überlegungen zur Rolle der Metonymie in den konzeptuellen Grundlagen der Nominalisierung lassen sich viele alte Probleme der Forschung in einem neuen Licht betrachten. Eine besondere Rolle spielt in diesem Zusammenhang das so genannte Tätigkeits-Modell (Schwarze 1995).

Coherence and Interaction. The French causal connectors comme and car

by Ulrich DETGES and Thomas WEIDHAAS

Adverbial patterns in interaction. Edited by Oliver Ehmer and Dagmar Barth-Weingarten

The two French causal conjunctions car and comme can both be employed to convey background inform... more The two French causal conjunctions car and comme can both be employed to convey background information in narratives. Despite this overlap in function, they have properties that are diametrically opposed. While comme is a subordinating and usually pre-posed conjunction, car is a coordinating conjunction which always occurs in post-position. As observed by many authors, post-position is normal for causal clauses. This tendency is usually explained by the argumentative role of causal clauses in interactive oral exchanges. By contrast, pre-position (as in the case of comme) is an exceptional feature for causals and is usually ascribed to the requirements of discourse organization. Thus, it would seem that interaction and discourse organization are two mutually exclusive motivations. However, as we will show for both comme and car, they are in fact two sides of the same coin. Based on Ford’s (1993) view of causal adverbials as reactive responses to interactional trouble, we describe comme as a proactive device for fast problem-solving. Conversely car, which is always post-posed, is not only used for its capacity to respond to interactional trouble, but also for reasons of discourse organization. Our comparison of comme and car illustrates the long-standing notion that coherence building crucially involves negotiation between hearer and speaker about the next move.

Does Reanalysis Need Ambiguity?

Bauer, Matthias; Angelika Zirker & Nicolas Potysch (eds.). Ambiguity. An Interdisciplinary Approach., Nov 20, 2016

This contribution focuses on the relationship between reanalysis and ambiguity. According to the ... more This contribution focuses on the relationship between reanalysis and ambiguity. According to the classical view, reanalysis is made possible by the potentially ambiguous character of surface output. This view has been challenged on the grounds that the ambiguity of linguistic items is usually a result of (rather than a prerequisite for) reanalysis. As I will show, the traditional notion of ambiguity – generally defined as ambiguity of the linguistic code – fails to capture relevant aspects of the topic. Hence, my discussion will also take pragmatic underdetermination into account, which is defined in terms of implicature and inference. In the second part of the article, I will argue that reanalysis is rooted in language usage and is brought about by the hearer. Moreover, all reanalyses are usually controlled by one of two possible principles: the Principle of Relevant Usage Effect and the Transparency Principle. Based on an overview of examples from lexical, morphological and syntactic change I will show that reanalysis can, but need not, be triggered by code ambiguity or pragmatic underdetermination. By the same token, code ambiguity can, but need not, be a consequence of reanalysis. Despite the apparent difficulties in pinning down a systematic one-to-one relationship between ambiguity and reanalysis, I will propose a unified usage-based account for the various types of reanalyses discussed in this paper.

Puisque. L'état de la question

Weidenbusch, Waltraud (Hg.): Diskursmarker, Konnektoren, Modalwörter. Marqueurs de discours, connectuers, adverbes et particules modales. Tübingen: Narr (= Tübinger Beiträge zur Linguistik. 522), 129-141., 2014

Sans aucun doute, puisque est un des connecteurs les plus discutés du français moderne. Dans le p... more Sans aucun doute, puisque est un des connecteurs les plus discutés du français moderne. Dans le présent travail, nous nous proposons de soumettre à un examen critique les différentes tentatives de description de ce marqueur afin de dégager une vue d'ensemble cohérente de ses propriétés. Comme on le verra, cette discussion tourne autour de la notion de polyphonie linguistique proposée, entre autres, par 1 (voir (3a)).

Étant donné que versus puisque. Präsupposition, Akkommodadtion, Polyphonie

Vahram Atayan, Ulrich Detges & Paul Gévaudan (Hgg.): Modalität und Polyphonie. Die Implementierung von Sprecherperspektiven in der Grammatik der romanischen Sprachen. Tübingen: Stauffenburg, 89-100., 2013

Im Gegensatz zu fr. puisque ist étant donné (que) bis heute noch wenig untersucht. Im Folgenden m... more Im Gegensatz zu fr. puisque ist étant donné (que) bis heute noch wenig untersucht. Im Folgenden möchte ich darlegen, dass ein Vergleich beider Konnektoren nicht nur interessante deskriptive Gemeinsamkeiten und Unterschiede zutage fördert, sondern darüber hinaus gehende Konsequenzen für eine Theorie der Polyphonie nach sich zieht.

Vom Agens zum Instrument. Zur Geschichte der spanischen Wortbildungen auf -dor

in: Jacob, Daniel & Thomas Krefeld (eds.): Sprachgeschichte und Geschichte der Sprachwissenschaft. Tübingen: Narr, 179-192., 2007

In vielen Sprachen werden Suffixe, die zur Derivation von AGENTES aus verbalen Basen dienen, auch... more In vielen Sprachen werden Suffixe, die zur Derivation von AGENTES aus verbalen Basen dienen, auch zur Ableitung von INSTRUMENTEN genutzt (vgl. Panagl 1978). Unter INSTRUMENTEN sind dabei nicht allein Werkzeuge (dt. Bohrer) und Maschinen (dt. Mixer) zu verstehen, sondern beispielsweise auch Substanzen, die zur Realisierung des in der Wortbasis benannten Sachverhaltes dienen (dt. Nitroverdünner, sp. limpiador, neben ‚Putzgerät‛ auch ‚Reinigungsmittel‛). In der Regel sind die Wortbildungen mit AGENS-Funktion synchronisch frequenter (zu er-Bildungen im Deutschen Meibauer 1995: 118) und diachronisch älter als die entsprechenden INSTRUMENT-Ableitungen (zu lat. -tor Dressler 1986: 526, zu sp. -dor Pattison 1975: 111, zu frz. -eur Staib 1988: 137). Im folgenden möchte ich am Beispiel von sp. -dor zeigen, dass die Möglichkeit, mit diesem Suffix aus Verben

From speaker to subject. The obligatorization of the Old French subject pronouns.

in: Andersen, Hanne Leth, Merete Birkelund & Maj-Britt Mosegaard Hansen (eds.): La Linguistique au Coeur. Valence verbale, grammaticalisation et corpus. Mélanges offerts à Lene Schøsler à l'occasion de son 60e anniversaire. Odense: University Press of Southern Denmark, 75-103., 2006

La grammaticalisation des constructions de négation dans une perspective onomasiologique, ou: la déconstruction d’une illusion d’optique

La grammaticalisation des constructions de négation dans une perspective onomasiologique, ou: la ... more La grammaticalisation des constructions de négation dans une perspective onomasiologique, ou: la déconstruction d'une illusion d'optique Dans son acception la plus stricte, le terme de grammaticalisation se réfère aux changements linguistiques au cours desquels un élément lexical autonome se transforme en élément grammatical. Cette définition qui remonte à Meillet (1948 [1912]: 131) a été modifiée par Lehmann (1995: 9) qui propose d'appeler grammaticalisation chaque processus au cours duquel un élément donné, qu'il soit d'ordre lexical ou grammatical, acquiert un statut plus grammatical. La grammaticalisation est un type de processus graduel et unidirectionnel qui affecte des signes linguistiques individuels ainsi que des constructions entières, et dont la progression peut se mesurer à l'aide de paramètres structuraux (Lehmann : 122-171, 1985. Cette approche, centrée sur l'évolution structurale des constructions grammaticales, est de nature essentiellement sémasiologique. Le présent travail se propose d'adopter un point de vue strictement onomasiologique et d'analyser un cas concret de grammaticalisation, à savoir celui des constructions de négation du français. Nous verrons que ce changement de perspective non seulement met en évidence des incohérences considérables du modèle de Lehmann, mais permet de mieux comprendre comment et pourquoi les processus de grammaticalistion se produisent.

Grammaticalization and pragmaticalization

by Richard Waltereit and Ulrich DETGES

The Romance adverbs in -mente: a case study in grammaticalization

Peter O. Müller, Ingeborg Ohnheiser, Susan Olsen und Franz Rainer (Hgg.): HSK Word-Formation. An International Handbook of the Languages of Europe, Berlin: Mouton De Gruyter., 2015

The affix MENTE is the most important device for deriving adverbs from adjectives in Romance. In ... more

Different functions, different histories. Modal particles and discourse markers from a diachronic point of view

by Ulrich DETGES and Richard Waltereit

Altfranzösisch or und deutsch jetzt in Fragen

Stark, Elisabeth, Roland Schmidt-Riese & Eva Stoll (eds.): Romanische Syntax im Vergleich. Tübingen: Narr, 417-436., 2007

Or in Old French and jetzt in Modern German are temporal adverbs that can also function as modal ... more

Future markers in Western Romance. Cyclic change, synchronic variation and diachronic competition

in: Maj-Britt Hansen (ed.): The Role of Pragmatics in Cyclic Language Change. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 289-314 (= Journal of Historical Pragmatics 21:2, Special Issue), 2021

In this article, which examines the cyclic evolution of future markers in Western Romance (mainly... more 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 e ciency 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 o en 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.

Cognitive Semantics in the Romance Languages

Submitted to appear in: Michele Loporcaro & Francesco Gardani (eds.), Oxford Encyclopedia of Romance Linguistics.

Cognitive Semantics is an approach to the study of linguistic meaning. It is based on the assumpt... more Cognitive Semantics is an approach to the study of linguistic meaning. It is based on the assumption that the human linguistic capacity is part of our cognitive abilities, and that language in general and meaning in particular can therefore be better understood by taking into account the cognitive mechanisms that control the conceptual and perceptual processing of extra-linguistic reality. Issues central to CS are a) the notion of prototype and its role in the description of language, b) the nature of linguistic meaning and c) the functioning of different types of semantic relations. The question concerning the nature of meaning is an issue that is particularly controversial between CS on the one hand and structuralist and generative approaches on the other hand: is linguistic meaning conceptual, i.e. part of our encyclopedic knowledge (as is claimed by CS), or is it autonomous, i.e. based on abstract and language-specific features? According to CS, the most important types of semantic relations are metaphor, metonymy and different kinds of taxonomic relations, which, in turn, can be further broken down into more basic associative relations such as similarity, contiguity and contrast. These play a central role not only in polysemy and word formation, i.e. in the lexicon, but also in the grammar.

En tout cas. Zur Diachronie eines Diskursmarkers

Nicklaus Martina; Nora Wirtz, Wiebke Langer, Marcella Costa & Karin Ewert-Kling (Hgg.). 2018. Lexeme, Phraseme, Konstruktionen: Aktuelle Beiträge zu Lexikologie und Phraseologie. Festschrift für Elmar Schafroth. Franfurt a. M.: Peter Lang.

The discourse marker en tout cas 'in any case', 'anyway' is used in modern French both as a refor... more The discourse marker en tout cas 'in any case', 'anyway' is used in modern French both as a reformulative connector and as a sequencer. As I will show, these functions reflect two distinct stages of this item's diachronic evolution. En tout cas, originally used as a manner adverbial, was first conventionalized as a reformulative connector before coming to be used as a sequencing device. This development is insufficiently described as a succession of two semantic changes concerning just the item en tout cas. Rather, each step in the latter's diachronic evolution was triggered by the conventionalization of a new argumentative schema for which en tout cas provided a constructional frame. As I will argue, this change is not an instance of grammaticalization as captured by Lehmann's 2002 parameter model, but is more adequately conceived of as lexical constructionalization.

Insubordination, Abtönung, and the next move in interaction. Main-clause-initial puisque in French

[to appear in Oscar Loureda & Salvador Pons Bordería, eds. 2018, DiscoursePragmatic Change in Romance. Leiden: Brill

Main-clause-initial puisque 'but' (?) is an insubordinated erstwhile causal conjunction. It signa... more Main-clause-initial puisque 'but' (?) is an insubordinated erstwhile causal conjunction. It signals that the information introduced by it should be known to the addressee. By doing so, puisque conveys an act of refutation directed against the immediately preceding utterance. As has been noted in the literature, insubordinated erstwhile conjunctions bear a close functional resemblance to German modal particles in that they integrate speech acts into the common ground — a function which we term abtönung. However, in spite of being eligible for abtönung, main-clause-initial puisque is basically a discourse marker rather than a modal particle; as we will show, its usage depends heavily on the sequential ordering of the discourse, whereas constraints of this kind play no role for modal particles. It has often been assumed that the diachronic mechanism behind insubordination is main-clause-ellipsis. However, based on Ford (1993) and Diessel & Hetterle (2011) we will argue that insubordinated puisque was brought about by a reanalysis in elaborative contexts. In the terms proposed by Detges & Waltereit (2016: 653), main-clause-initial puisque emerged from contexts where it served to negotiate the next move in the joint construction of discourse. It is this function that ultimately makes it a discourse-marker, despite its suitability for abtönung.

Te lo tengo dicho muchas veces. Resultatives between coercion, relevance and reanalysis.

To appear in: Ehmer, Oliver & Malte Rosemeyer, Malte: Inferences in interaction in language change. Open Linguistics, Special issue, 2018

This paper deals with the question of how and why resultative constructions change into anteriors... more This paper deals with the question of how and why resultative constructions change into anteriors. This discussion will be based on synchronic data concerning tener + past participle, a resultative construction used in modern Spanish. One of the latter's most frequent is te lo tengo dicho 'I have (already) told you'. This is remarkable since decir 'to tell' is a non-transitional verb; te lo tengo dicho thus violates the requirement that resultatives should only combine with transitional verbs. In the literature, such mismatches between the semantics of a given construction and the meaning of its lexical filler have been claimed to normally trigger coercion, i.e. an inferential repair mechanism giving rise to special meaning effects. Thus, coercion – despite being conceived as a purely synchronic mechanism – is a prime candidate for an explanation of the change from resultative to anterior. In line with this hypothesis, occurrences of te lo tengo dicho are attested in my corpus where the latter is specified by quantifying adverbials such as muchas veces 'many times'. However, speaker judgements indiacte that even te lo tengo dicho muchas veces is not an iterative anterior construction, but still a resultative. Based on synchronic data taken from the CREA-corpus, it will be shown that in the vast majority of its occurrences, te lo tengo dicho is part of an interactional discourse pattern where certain argumentative effects based on its resultative meaning are highly relevant. Crucially, therefore, in such "strong" uses a coercive shift towards an anterior meaning is excluded. On a more abstract level, it will be shown that coercion is controlled by pragmatic factors; in the case of te lo tengo dicho muchas veces, conceptual/semantic plausibility is systematically overridden by pragmatic relevance.

Insubordinated puisque in French. Grammaticalization, De-Grammaticalization, Reanalysis?

JournaLIPP 5 (= Martin Eberl, Sara Ingrosso, Enkhmaa Narmandakh, Sebastian Ortner, Katharina Scholtz, Aleksander Wiatr (eds.): Grammatikalisierung in interdisziplinärer Perspektive - Grammaticalization from an interdisciplinary perspective).

In Modern French, main-clause initial puisque is a discourse-marker which coexists with a homonym... more In Modern French, main-clause initial puisque is a discourse-marker which coexists with a homonymous subordinating causal connective. Diachronically, it has emerged from the latter through a process of insubordi¬nation. It is often assumed that the diachronies of discourse makers can be meaningfully described as grammaticalization processes. This view has been challenged by Detges & Waltereit (2009, 2016) on the grounds that grammar in the narrow sense (e.g. inflectional mor¬phology) on the one hand and discourse markers and modal particles on the other are the outcome of different kinds of diachronic processes. For sentence-initial puisque, this question is further complicated by the fact that insubordination has been claimed to be a counter-example to basic assumptions of established grammaticalization theo¬ries. Against this backdrop, this article pursues two objectives. Firstly, an account will be given of the diachronic mechanisms that turned the subordinating connective puis¬que into a main-clause-initial item. It will be shown that the emergence of main-clause-initial puisque was brought about by a pragmatically motivated reanalysis whereby a frequent usage-effect was conventionalized as the construction's new meaning. This change took place in elaborative discourse contexts (D’Hertefelt & Verstraete 2014) where subordinating puisque was used to negotiate the next move in discourse building. Secondly (and more importantly), I will discuss the question of whether this process can be meaningfully classified as an instance of grammaticalization.

Strong Pronouns in Modern Spoken French. Cliticization, Constructionalization, Grammaticalization?

Unlike the subject clitics of Modern French (je, tu, il, etc.), the strong (tonic or disjoint) pr... more Unlike the subject clitics of Modern French (je, tu, il, etc.), the strong (tonic or disjoint) pronouns (moi, toi, lui, etc.) have received little attention in the literature. In this article, I show that in spoken French 1s moi, unlike 3s lui, has in fact undergone both semantic bleaching and heavy prosodic erosion and has therefore progressed along Lehmann's (2002 [1982]) parameters of grammaticalization. As will be argued, this person-asymmetry is rooted in the fact that moi, unlike lui, is largely used as a discourse-structuring device. Based on a phonetic analysis, I show that the main factor underlying the prosodic weakening of left-detached moi is string frequency, i.e. the degree of predictability of the element immediately following moi. The erosion of moi in spoken French is particularly strong when it is followed by the clitic 1s je; it is even stronger in those cases where moi introduces a stance-verb expression of the type moi je trouve que ... “I think that …”. However, despite the massive effects produced by string frequency, the prosodic, distributional and discourse-pragmatic data presented here do not support the view that the prosodically weakened variants of moi instantiate a construction that is distinct from non-clitic moi.

Grammatikalisierung. Eine kognitiv-pragmatische Theorie, dargestellt am Beispiel romanischer und anderer Sprachen (Ms. Tübingen 2001)

This work - an unpublished habilitation thesis - provides an overview of grammaticalization cycle... more This work - an unpublished habilitation thesis - provides an overview of grammaticalization cycles in the Romance languages, including negation, tense, case, person and adverb-derivation. It it argued that grammaticalization is a relatively specific and homogeneous type of change distinct from other types of change, including reanalysis and pragmaticalization.

Argument inheritance as a metonymic effect

Nominalization combines morphological aspects (the derivation of nouns from verbs) with syntactic... more Nominalization combines morphological aspects (the derivation of nouns from verbs) with syntactic ones (argument structure/valency). The notion of argument inheritance captures the intuition that both aspects seem to obey the same (syntactic) regularities. However, as will be argued in the present paper, this impression is incorrect. Although morphological derivation and nominal valency make use of the same conceptual knowledge (which explains the apparent similarities between them), both types of linguistic structure serve different functional purposes and therefore differ in the way in which this knowledge is exploited linguistically. The metonymy-based account proposed in this paper provides simple explanations for a wide range of problems concerning morphological as well as syntactic aspects of nominalization. This will be illustrated with particular reference to the so-called activity model proposed by Schwarze (1995). Das Phänomen der Nominalisierung beinhaltet morphologische Gesichtpunkte (die Derivation von Nomina aus Verben) ebenso wie syntaktische (insbesondere Probleme der nominalen Valenz/Argumentstruktur). Der Begriff der Argumentvererbung gibt die Intuition wieder, dass beide Aspekte der Nominalisierung denselben (syntaktischen) Regelmäßigkeiten folgen. In der vorliegenden Arbeit möchte ich jedoch zeigen, dass dieser Eindruck unzutreffend ist. Obwohl morphologische Derivation und syntaktische Valenz dasselbe konzeptuelle Wissen voraussetzen (was die scheinbaren Ähnlichkeiten zwischen ihnen erklärt), erfüllen sie völlig unterschiedliche Funktionen; aus diesem Grund unterscheiden sie sich in der Art und Weise, wie das konzeptuelle Wissen jeweils sprachlich genutzt wird. Auf der Grundlage der hier dargelegten Überlegungen zur Rolle der Metonymie in den konzeptuellen Grundlagen der Nominalisierung lassen sich viele alte Probleme der Forschung in einem neuen Licht betrachten. Eine besondere Rolle spielt in diesem Zusammenhang das so genannte Tätigkeits-Modell (Schwarze 1995).

Coherence and Interaction. The French causal connectors comme and car

by Ulrich DETGES and Thomas WEIDHAAS

Adverbial patterns in interaction. Edited by Oliver Ehmer and Dagmar Barth-Weingarten

The two French causal conjunctions car and comme can both be employed to convey background inform... more The two French causal conjunctions car and comme can both be employed to convey background information in narratives. Despite this overlap in function, they have properties that are diametrically opposed. While comme is a subordinating and usually pre-posed conjunction, car is a coordinating conjunction which always occurs in post-position. As observed by many authors, post-position is normal for causal clauses. This tendency is usually explained by the argumentative role of causal clauses in interactive oral exchanges. By contrast, pre-position (as in the case of comme) is an exceptional feature for causals and is usually ascribed to the requirements of discourse organization. Thus, it would seem that interaction and discourse organization are two mutually exclusive motivations. However, as we will show for both comme and car, they are in fact two sides of the same coin. Based on Ford’s (1993) view of causal adverbials as reactive responses to interactional trouble, we describe comme as a proactive device for fast problem-solving. Conversely car, which is always post-posed, is not only used for its capacity to respond to interactional trouble, but also for reasons of discourse organization. Our comparison of comme and car illustrates the long-standing notion that coherence building crucially involves negotiation between hearer and speaker about the next move.

Does Reanalysis Need Ambiguity?

Bauer, Matthias; Angelika Zirker & Nicolas Potysch (eds.). Ambiguity. An Interdisciplinary Approach., Nov 20, 2016

This contribution focuses on the relationship between reanalysis and ambiguity. According to the ... more This contribution focuses on the relationship between reanalysis and ambiguity. According to the classical view, reanalysis is made possible by the potentially ambiguous character of surface output. This view has been challenged on the grounds that the ambiguity of linguistic items is usually a result of (rather than a prerequisite for) reanalysis. As I will show, the traditional notion of ambiguity – generally defined as ambiguity of the linguistic code – fails to capture relevant aspects of the topic. Hence, my discussion will also take pragmatic underdetermination into account, which is defined in terms of implicature and inference. In the second part of the article, I will argue that reanalysis is rooted in language usage and is brought about by the hearer. Moreover, all reanalyses are usually controlled by one of two possible principles: the Principle of Relevant Usage Effect and the Transparency Principle. Based on an overview of examples from lexical, morphological and syntactic change I will show that reanalysis can, but need not, be triggered by code ambiguity or pragmatic underdetermination. By the same token, code ambiguity can, but need not, be a consequence of reanalysis. Despite the apparent difficulties in pinning down a systematic one-to-one relationship between ambiguity and reanalysis, I will propose a unified usage-based account for the various types of reanalyses discussed in this paper.

Puisque. L'état de la question

Weidenbusch, Waltraud (Hg.): Diskursmarker, Konnektoren, Modalwörter. Marqueurs de discours, connectuers, adverbes et particules modales. Tübingen: Narr (= Tübinger Beiträge zur Linguistik. 522), 129-141., 2014

Sans aucun doute, puisque est un des connecteurs les plus discutés du français moderne. Dans le p... more Sans aucun doute, puisque est un des connecteurs les plus discutés du français moderne. Dans le présent travail, nous nous proposons de soumettre à un examen critique les différentes tentatives de description de ce marqueur afin de dégager une vue d'ensemble cohérente de ses propriétés. Comme on le verra, cette discussion tourne autour de la notion de polyphonie linguistique proposée, entre autres, par 1 (voir (3a)).

Étant donné que versus puisque. Präsupposition, Akkommodadtion, Polyphonie

Vahram Atayan, Ulrich Detges & Paul Gévaudan (Hgg.): Modalität und Polyphonie. Die Implementierung von Sprecherperspektiven in der Grammatik der romanischen Sprachen. Tübingen: Stauffenburg, 89-100., 2013

Im Gegensatz zu fr. puisque ist étant donné (que) bis heute noch wenig untersucht. Im Folgenden m... more Im Gegensatz zu fr. puisque ist étant donné (que) bis heute noch wenig untersucht. Im Folgenden möchte ich darlegen, dass ein Vergleich beider Konnektoren nicht nur interessante deskriptive Gemeinsamkeiten und Unterschiede zutage fördert, sondern darüber hinaus gehende Konsequenzen für eine Theorie der Polyphonie nach sich zieht.

Vom Agens zum Instrument. Zur Geschichte der spanischen Wortbildungen auf -dor

in: Jacob, Daniel & Thomas Krefeld (eds.): Sprachgeschichte und Geschichte der Sprachwissenschaft. Tübingen: Narr, 179-192., 2007

In vielen Sprachen werden Suffixe, die zur Derivation von AGENTES aus verbalen Basen dienen, auch... more In vielen Sprachen werden Suffixe, die zur Derivation von AGENTES aus verbalen Basen dienen, auch zur Ableitung von INSTRUMENTEN genutzt (vgl. Panagl 1978). Unter INSTRUMENTEN sind dabei nicht allein Werkzeuge (dt. Bohrer) und Maschinen (dt. Mixer) zu verstehen, sondern beispielsweise auch Substanzen, die zur Realisierung des in der Wortbasis benannten Sachverhaltes dienen (dt. Nitroverdünner, sp. limpiador, neben ‚Putzgerät‛ auch ‚Reinigungsmittel‛). In der Regel sind die Wortbildungen mit AGENS-Funktion synchronisch frequenter (zu er-Bildungen im Deutschen Meibauer 1995: 118) und diachronisch älter als die entsprechenden INSTRUMENT-Ableitungen (zu lat. -tor Dressler 1986: 526, zu sp. -dor Pattison 1975: 111, zu frz. -eur Staib 1988: 137). Im folgenden möchte ich am Beispiel von sp. -dor zeigen, dass die Möglichkeit, mit diesem Suffix aus Verben

From speaker to subject. The obligatorization of the Old French subject pronouns.

in: Andersen, Hanne Leth, Merete Birkelund & Maj-Britt Mosegaard Hansen (eds.): La Linguistique au Coeur. Valence verbale, grammaticalisation et corpus. Mélanges offerts à Lene Schøsler à l'occasion de son 60e anniversaire. Odense: University Press of Southern Denmark, 75-103., 2006

La grammaticalisation des constructions de négation dans une perspective onomasiologique, ou: la déconstruction d’une illusion d’optique

La grammaticalisation des constructions de négation dans une perspective onomasiologique, ou: la ... more La grammaticalisation des constructions de négation dans une perspective onomasiologique, ou: la déconstruction d'une illusion d'optique Dans son acception la plus stricte, le terme de grammaticalisation se réfère aux changements linguistiques au cours desquels un élément lexical autonome se transforme en élément grammatical. Cette définition qui remonte à Meillet (1948 [1912]: 131) a été modifiée par Lehmann (1995: 9) qui propose d'appeler grammaticalisation chaque processus au cours duquel un élément donné, qu'il soit d'ordre lexical ou grammatical, acquiert un statut plus grammatical. La grammaticalisation est un type de processus graduel et unidirectionnel qui affecte des signes linguistiques individuels ainsi que des constructions entières, et dont la progression peut se mesurer à l'aide de paramètres structuraux (Lehmann : 122-171, 1985. Cette approche, centrée sur l'évolution structurale des constructions grammaticales, est de nature essentiellement sémasiologique. Le présent travail se propose d'adopter un point de vue strictement onomasiologique et d'analyser un cas concret de grammaticalisation, à savoir celui des constructions de négation du français. Nous verrons que ce changement de perspective non seulement met en évidence des incohérences considérables du modèle de Lehmann, mais permet de mieux comprendre comment et pourquoi les processus de grammaticalistion se produisent.

Grammaticalization and pragmaticalization

by Richard Waltereit and Ulrich DETGES

The Romance adverbs in -mente: a case study in grammaticalization

Peter O. Müller, Ingeborg Ohnheiser, Susan Olsen und Franz Rainer (Hgg.): HSK Word-Formation. An International Handbook of the Languages of Europe, Berlin: Mouton De Gruyter., 2015

The affix MENTE is the most important device for deriving adverbs from adjectives in Romance. In ... more

Different functions, different histories. Modal particles and discourse markers from a diachronic point of view

by Ulrich DETGES and Richard Waltereit

Altfranzösisch or und deutsch jetzt in Fragen

Stark, Elisabeth, Roland Schmidt-Riese & Eva Stoll (eds.): Romanische Syntax im Vergleich. Tübingen: Narr, 417-436., 2007

Or in Old French and jetzt in Modern German are temporal adverbs that can also function as modal ... more