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Article published In:
Transcategoriality: A crosslinguistic perspective
Edited by Sylvie Hancil, Danh Thành Do-Hurinville and Huy Linh Dao
[Cognitive Linguistic Studies 5:1] 2018
► pp. 106–132

The challenge of polygrammaticalization for linguistic theory

Fractal grammar and transcategorial functioning

| LLACAN, CNRS, Sorbonne-Paris Cité & INALCO

Transcategorial morphemes share the common ability to be used synchronically across different syntactic categories (synchronic grammaticalization). This paper first shows that transcategoriality is a general property of linguistic systems, variously exploited by languages, then addresses the theoretical questions raised by these morphemes. A new model accounting for this transcategorial functioning, named “fractal grammar”, is proposed and illustrated by various examples. The analysis for this particular functioning relates the polysemy of these morphemes to their syntactic flexibility in a dynamic way: the variation of the syntactic scope of the morpheme (“fractal functioning”) is triggered by its environment and produces its polysemy (variation of the semantic scope). Fractal grammar is thus defined by two basic mechanisms: the construal of a common image-schema (“scale invariance”), accounting for the unity of the morpheme, and the activation of “scale (or level) properties”, accounting for the semantic and syntactic variations. A typological sketch of transcategoriality is then sketched, in relation to the strategies used by linguistic systems for the distribution of grammatical information. Three types of transcategorial strategies are distinguished: “oriented”, “generic”, and “functional” transcategoriality. The status of linguistic categories is then discussed in the light of the analysis of these particular morphemes.

Keywords: polycategoriality, polysemy, grammaticalization, fractal grammar, categorization, typology
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1From grammaticalization to transcategoriality
    • 1.2The challenge
  • 2.A dynamic model: Fractal grammar
    • 2.1Why are transcategorial morphemes fractal?
    • 2.2Scale invariance: the common ‘schematic form’
    • 2.3Schematic form: beyond semantic generalization, a matrix form
    • 2.4Scale properties and the construction of variation
      • 2.4.1Triggering factor
      • 2.4.2Domain of application and scope of the term
      • 2.4.3Paradigmatic properties
      • 2.4.4Syntactic properties of the structural level
      • 2.4.5Semantics of the category, semantics of the function, semantics of the position
      • 2.4.6Restrictions or loss of combinatory restrictions specific to the category also function as scale properties
      • 2.4.7The scope of anaphora and co-reference are also defined by the category in which the unit functions
    • 2.5Limits and refinement of the model
      • 2.5.1Persistence (or remanence) of scale properties
      • 2.5.2On grammaticalization chains and extensions
  • 3.Typology of transcategoriality
    • 3.1Oriented transcategoriality
    • 3.2Generic transcategoriality
    • 3.3Functional transcategoriality
  • 4.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 30 August 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/cogls.00015.rob
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