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Existential Constructions across Languages: Forms, meanings and functions
Edited by Laure Sarda and Ludovica Lena
[Human Cognitive Processing 76] 2023
► pp. 102–138

Chapter 4
Pure existentials vs. pure presentationals

Finding an existence out(side) of place

ORCID logo | University of Turin

Existential constructions are usually defined as sentences in which an entity is associated with some location. In the paper, a semasiological approach is adopted, which is essentially constructional in nature and assumes that existential constructions result from the grammaticalization of other (more basic) source constructions. This allows us to show that in spite of the basic nature of the spatial dimension, other source constructions are possible which are not directly based on space. They can be contrasted with pure presentationals which in a way represent their conceptual counterpart in the sense that the existence of the entity involved is presupposed only with regard to the specific utterance and is not independently established in the spatial dimension.

Keywords: grammaticalization, semasiological approach, spatial dimension
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.A semasiological approach for ECs
    • 2.1The semasiological view
    • 2.2Contrasting languages in the semasiological approach
      • 2.2.1PARTs as semasiological components
      • 2.2.2PREDs as semasiological objects
      • 2.2.3ENTs as semasiological objects
    • 2.3Interim conclusion
  • 3.Existential or presentational?
    • 3.1Pure existentials
    • 3.2Pure presentationals
  • 4.The curious case of the pure presentational ecco and voilà
    • 4.1The syntactic entrenchment of pure presentationals
      • 4.1.1The internal syntax of pure presentationals
      • 4.1.2The external syntax of pure presentationals
    • 4.2Phylogeny of pure presentationals
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • List of glosses
  • References
Published online: 5 July 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/hcp.76.04gae
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