In this cross-linguistic study we present parallels between (a) the stochastic patterns found in corpus studies of English prenominal possessives, and (b) the rule-governed, categorical features of a highly constrained prenominal possessive construction found in some Germanic, Slavic, and Romance languages. The well-known English tendency for prenominal possessor NPs to be low-weight, animate, and discourse-old or highly accessible corresponds to categorical requirements in what we call the Monolexemic Possessor Construction (MLP). This construction is recognizable by its pre-nominal, one-word, animate possessor that is highly accessible in the discourse context. We identify an accessibility hierarchy of nominal categories in which the MLP can be expressed. This hierarchy is consistent with all 17 languages with MLPs we have found. We show that this accessibility hierarchy (pronoun‹ proper noun‹ kinship term‹ common noun) is a function of the intrinsic discourse-pragmatic features of these nominal categories. While the categorical restriction to pronoun and proper noun possessors in Icelandic, German, and Russian may be largely grammaticized, we show that the discourse-pragmatic constraint is recognizably active in Czech and Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian. These results complement studies that attempt to understand how language structure responds to communicative forces and processing constraints.
2019. Llegaron en sus canoa: innovación gramatical en el español de la Amazonía peruana. Letras (Lima) 90:131 ► pp. 77 ff.
Nuria Yáñez-Bouza, Emma Moore, Linda van Bergen & Willem B. Hollmann
2019. Categories, Constructions, and Change in English Syntax,
EHRET, KATHARINA, CHRISTOPH WOLK & BENEDIKT SZMRECSANYI
2014. Quirky quadratures: on rhythm and weight as constraints on genitive variation in an unconventional data set. English Language and Linguistics 18:2 ► pp. 263 ff.
JANKOWSKI, BRIDGET L. & SALI A. TAGLIAMONTE
2014. On the genitive's trail: data and method from a sociolinguistic perspective. English Language and Linguistics 18:2 ► pp. 305 ff.
PAYNE, JOHN & EVA BERLAGE
2014. Genitive variation: the niche role of the oblique genitive. English Language and Linguistics 18:2 ► pp. 331 ff.
ROSENBACH, ANETTE
2014. English genitive variation – the state of the art. English Language and Linguistics 18:2 ► pp. 215 ff.
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