From semantics to grammar
Lexical substitution in the evolution of verbal periphrases
haber / tener + infinitive
The main aim of this paper is to analyze the rise of the
Spanish verbal periphrases tener de/que + inf and
investigate the relevance of analogy and lexical semantics for these
changes. We demonstrate that the constructions haber de/que
+ inf acted as supporting constructions motivating
the rise of the synonymous pair tener de/que + inf
(De Smet & Fischer 2017).
The analogical process between the two constructions was due to the synonymy
between the lexical verbs haber and tener
expressing possessive meanings.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction: Objectives and hypothesis
- 2.Corpus
- 3.The role of analogy in diachronic change
- 4.
Haber and tener as lexical
verbs
- 5.From semantics to grammar by way of analogy
- 5.1The evolution of haber de + infinitive
- 5.2The evolution of haber que + infinitive
- 5.3The evolution of tener de + infinitive
- 5.4The evolution of tener que + infinitive
- 5.5The evolution of cantarlo tengo (sing it I
must)
- 6.Conclusions
-
Notes
-
References