Cover not available
Part of
Category Change from a Constructional Perspective
Edited by Kristel Van Goethem, Muriel Norde, Evie Coussé and Gudrun Vanderbauwhede
[Constructional Approaches to Language 20] 2018
► pp. 179–205

Chapter 7
The emergence of a new adverbial downtoner

Constructional change and constructionalization of Dutch [ver van X] and [verre van X] ‘far from X’

The English expression far from, denoting spatial or metaphorical distance, has developed into an adverbial downtoner (De Smet, 2012). In this corpus-based study, our first purpose is to analyze to which degree the Dutch counterparts of the English [far from X] construction, that is [ver van X] and [verre van X], have also developed into downtoners. We show that synchronically ver van mostly has a spatial or metaphorical meaning, while verre van is generally used as an adverbial downtoner. As a second objective, we explore the diachronic pathways taken by both constructions and argue that the category change undergone by [verre van X] is part of a true constructionalization process, while [ver van X] has been affected by minor constructional changes only.

Keywords: downtoner, degree adverb, Dutch, category change, constructional change, constructionalization
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Downtoners
  • 3.[ver van X] and [verre van X] in present-day Dutch
    • 3.1Method
    • 3.2Semantics
    • 3.3Complementation patterns
  • 4.Diachronic developments
    • 4.1Method
    • 4.2[ver van X]
      • 4.2.1Semantic changes
      • 4.2.2Changes in the complementation types
    • 4.3[verre van X]
      • 4.3.1Semantic changes
      • 4.3.2Changes in the complementation types
    • 4.4Comparison [ver van X] and [verre van X]
  • 5.Category change, constructional change and constructionalization
  • 6.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
  • Online sources
Published online: 22 March 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/cal.20.07goe
References
Aarts, B.
(2007) Syntactic gradience: The nature of grammatical indeterminacy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Biber, D., Johansson, S., Leech, G., Conrad, S., & Finegan, E.
(1999) Longman grammar of spoken and written English. Edinburgh/Harlow/Essex: Pearson Education.Google Scholar
Bergs, A., & Diewald, G.
(2008) Introduction: Constructions and language change. In A. Bergs, & G. Diewald (Eds.), Constructions and language change (pp. 1–21). Berlin/New York: De Gruyter Mouton. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Claridge, C., & Kytö, M.
(2014) ‘I know you are a bit of a dandy’: Exploring a degree modifier. In M. Hundt (Ed.), Late Modern English syntax (pp. 239–268). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Denison, D.
(2001) Gradience and linguistic change. In L. J. Brinton (Ed.), Historical linguistics 1999 (pp. 119–144). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
De Smet, H.
(2012) The course of actualization. Language, 88(3), 601–633. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
De Smet, H., & Fischer, O.
(2017) Analogy in language change: Supporting constructions. In M. Hundt, S. E. Pfenninger, & S. Mollin (Eds.), The changing English language: Psycholinguistic perspectives (pp. 240–268). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Haeseryn, W., Romijn, K., Geerts, G., de Rooij, J., & van den Toorn, M. C.
(19972). Algemene Nederlandse Spraakkunst (Vol. 2). Groningen/Deurne: Martinus Nijhoff uitgevers/ Wolters Plantyn.Google Scholar
Haspelmath, M.
(2004) On directionality in language change with particular reference to grammaticalization. In O. Fischer, M. Norde, & H. Perridon (Eds.), Up and down the cline: The nature of grammaticalization (pp. 17–44). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Heine, B., Claudi, U., & Hünnemeyer, F.
(1991) Grammaticalization: A conceptual framework. Chicago: Chicago University Press.Google Scholar
Himmelmann, N.
(2004) Lexicalization and grammaticization: Opposite or orthogonal? In W. Wisang, N. Himmelmann, & B. Wiemer (Eds.), What makes grammaticalization? A look from its fringes and its components (pp. 21–42). Berlin/New York: De Gruyter Mouton.Google Scholar
Horst van der, J. M.
(2008) Geschiedenis van de Nederlandse syntaxis (Vol. 2). Leuven: Leuven University Press.Google Scholar
Nevalainen, T., & Rissanen, M.
(2002) ‘Fairly pretty or pretty fair?’: On the development and grammaticalization of English downtoners. Language sciences, 24(3–4), 359–380. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Norde, M.
(2014) On parents and peers in constructional networks. Paper presented at Cogling-6 . University of Ghent, 11–12 December 2014.
Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S., Leech, G., & Svartik, J.
(1997) A comprehensive grammar of the English language. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Schäfer, R., & Bildhauer, F.
(2012) Building large corpora from the web using a new efficient tool chain. In N. Calzolari et al. (Eds.), Proceedings of the Eight International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC 2010) (pp. 486–493). Valletta: European language resources distribution agency.Google Scholar
Schäfer, R.
(2015) Processing and querying large web corpora with the COW14 architecture. In P. Bański, H. Biber, E. Breiteneder, M. Kupietz, H. Lüngen, & A. Witt (Eds.), Proceedings of challenges in the management of large corpora (CMLC-3) (pp. 28–34). Lancaster: Lancaster University.Google Scholar
Traugott, E. C.
(1988) Pragmatic strengthening and grammaticalization. In S. Axmaker, & H. Singmaster (Eds.), Proceedings of the Fourteenth Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society (pp. 406–416). Berkeley: Berkeley Linguistics Society.Google Scholar
(2008) The grammaticalization of NP of NP patterns. In A. Bergs, & G. Diewald (Eds.), Constructions and language change (pp. 23–45). Berlin/New York: De Gruyter Mouton.Google Scholar
Traugott, E. C., & Trousdale, G.
(2013) Constructionalization and constructional changes. Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Van Goethem, K.
(2015) ‘Cette mesure est-elle vraiment clé?’ A constructional approach to categorial gradience. Journal of French Language Studies, 25(1), 115–142. DOI logoGoogle Scholar

Online sources

COW (Corpora from the Web)
Available online at: [URL]
CGN (Corpus Gesproken Nederlands)
Available online at: [URL]
CHK (Corpus Historische Kranten)
Available online at: [URL]
TwNC (Twente News Corpus)
Available online at: [URL]
WNT (Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal)
Available online at: [URL]
Cited by

Cited by 2 other publications

Brinton, Laurel J. & Tohru Inoue
2020. A far from simple matter revisited. In Late Modern English [Studies in Language Companion Series, 214], ► pp. 272 ff. DOI logo
Koutsoukos, Nikos, Kristel Van Goethem & Hendrik De Smet
2018. Asymmetries, mismatches and construction grammar. Constructions and Frames 10:2 ► pp. 123 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 22 april 2024. 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.