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Article published In:
The Role of Pragmatics in Cyclic Language Change
Edited by Maj-Britt Mosegaard Hansen
[Journal of Historical Pragmatics 21:2] 2020
► pp. 315–346

Some reflections on semantic–pragmatic cycles

| University of Valencia
| University of Valencia

This paper explores novel ways to consider semantic–pragmatic cycles using a dual strategy: an inwards strategy, whereby the distinctive traits of a pragmatic cycle are established, and an outwards strategy, whereby the categories that delimit semantic–pragmatic cycles are described. The result of this exploration is the distinction between “pragmatic cycle”, “replication”, “concomitance” and “paradigmatic increase” as four different yet related processes. In addition, this study integrates Construction Grammar into the description of each process and shows that the study of semantic–pragmatic cycles can benefit from a constructional approach, adopting Traugott and Trousdale’s (2013) and Traugott’s (2018) models, and including concepts from European structuralism, particularly the notions of “paradigm”, “diasystem” and “functional language” (“lengua funcional”).

Keywords: constructionalisation, discourse units, grammaticalization, position, semantic–pragmatic cycle
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The dual origin of cyclicity and how to overcome it
    • 2.1Cyclicity in its initial stage
    • 2.2What S–P cycles are
    • 2.3What S–P cycles are not
  • 3.Cyclicity from the point of view of its essential features
    • 3.1Introduction
      • 3.1.1Items with similar meaning
      • 3.1.2Repetition of a linguistic change (similar source meaning > similar pragmatic extension)
      • 3.1.3Gradual acquisition
      • 3.1.4Persistence/loss of the micro-construction
      • 3.1.5Different time spans
      • 3.1.6The same (or close) diatopic, diastratic and diaphasic varieties
  • 4.A case of cyclicity: macho-tío/a
    • 4.1 Macho
    • 4.2 Tío/a
    • 4.3The expansion of tío/a
  • 5.Cyclicity-related cases
    • 5.1A concomitance development: macho/tío versus güey
    • 5.2A case of replication: igual/lo mismo
    • 5.3Paradigmatic increase: esto es/o sea
  • 6.Final remarks
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Corpora
  • References
Published online: 3 March 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jhp.00046.pon
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