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Part of
Exaptation and Language Change
Edited by Muriel Norde and Freek Van de Velde
[Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 336] 2016
► pp. 341–375

Exploring and recycling

Topichood and the evolution of Ibero-romance articles

This paper discusses the concept of syntactic exaptation (see Traugott 2004) by considering two changes which involve re-use of highly grammaticalized linguistic material and have as yet received little attention. We claim that exaptation is an appropriate label to describe the outcome of both processes and suggest defining exaptation as a derived notion, which allows for a quite restricted definition. The case studies focus on (i) Brazilian Portuguese, which allows for preverbal bare singular subjects with a generic reading, but also with definite/ specific referents (Wall 2013), an extension presumably due to their common interpretation as topics; and (ii) Spanish, which extended the definite article around 1600 to the head of completive that-clauses (Lapesa 1984). Later on, the article was reinterpreted as introducing sentences that convey ‘thematic’ (Serrano 2014) or topical information. Both changes concern the same category (article marking), and show recycling into a novel use through information structural properties.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Towards a useful notion of exaptation
    • 1.2Exaptation as a derived notion
    • 1.3An elementary sketch of the history of articles and of information-structural notions
      • 1.3.1The grammaticalization of definite articles in Romance
      • 1.3.2Basic notions of information structure
  • 2.Brazilian Portuguese: ‘Systemstörung’ followed by exaptation
    • 2.1Sketch of the diachronic development
    • 2.2Implications from synchronic patterns
    • 2.3The exaptation of a syntactic function in BrP
  • 3.Recycling the Spanish definite article
  • 4.Exploring and recycling: Article exaptation(s) in Portuguese and Spanish
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 24 February 2016
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.336.12wal
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Van de Velde, Freek
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