The emergence of periphrastic verb constructions in Dutch. A construction grammar approach to language change
Short description
The project aims to generate:
• New empirical knowledge on the history of the Dutch language
• A more comprehensive account of emerging periphrastic verb constructions in Germanic and Romance languages
• Discussion of fundamental mechanisms of language change
• Critical reflection on the explanatory power of grammaticalization theory
• Theoretical contribution to the framework of diachronic construction grammar
A major topic in the historical study of grammar is the emergence of periphrastic verb constructions in the Germanic and Romance languages. A classic example is the emergence of the periphrastic 'have' perfect (a) out of a possessive construction as in (b).
- I have packed my suitcase.
- I have my suitcase packed and ready.
This development is traditionally considered to be a typical case of grammaticalization, a unidirectional process whereby a lexical item (e.g. the possessive verb 'have') gradually loses its lexical meaning and starts to fulfill a grammatical function (e.g. the auxiliary 'have').
The project develops an alternative approach within the innovative framework of diachronic construction grammar, tackling formal and/or semantic changes within both the auxiliary and the past participle. To this purpose, the emergence of three periphrastic verb constructions in Dutch (i.e. the perfect/passive with auxiliaries 'have', 'be' and 'become') are studied empirically in a corpus of historical Dutch texts from the period 1250-2000.