Sociocultural Dimensions of Lexis and Text in the History of English
Edited by Peter Petré, Hubert Cuyckens and Frauke D'hoedt
[Current Issues in Linguistic Theory, 343] 2018. viii, 258 pp.
Peter Petré
List of John Benjamins publications for which Peter Petré plays a role.
Title
Subjects English linguistics | Germanic linguistics | Historical linguistics
Articles
2020 Putting connections centre stage in diachronic Construction Grammar Nodes and Networks in Diachronic Construction Grammar, Sommerer, Lotte and Elena Smirnova (eds.), pp. 317–352 | Chapter
Construction Grammar conceptualizes language as a hierarchically organized network of constructions, defined as conventional pairings of form and meaning. Importantly, constructions are interlinked: vertical links connect lower-level constructions with their higher-level parents; horizontal links… read more
2018 Introduction: Philology as linguistically informed cultural history Sociocultural Dimensions of Lexis and Text in the History of English, Petré, Peter, Hubert Cuyckens and Frauke D'hoedt (eds.), pp. 1–12 | Chapter
2016 Unidirectionality as a cycle of convention and innovation: Micro-changes in the grammaticalization of [be
going to INF] Computational Construction Grammar and Constructional Change, Beuls, Katrien and Remi van Trijp (eds.), pp. 115–146 | Article
The present study combines recent interest on the impact of unconventional individual language use on grammar change (Petré and Van de Velde 2014, De Smet 2016) with research on how conventional grammar impacts on language users. To better understand their interplay, I will zoom in on the… read more
2015 Review of Traugott & Trousdale (2013): Constructionalization and constructional changes Diachronica 32:2, pp. 284–292 | Review
2015 Why is there a Present-Day English absolute? Studies in Language 39:1, pp. 199–229 | Article
This paper examines the divergent evolutions of the Absolute Construction (AC) in the history of the Germanic languages, with a focus on English and Dutch, and provides an explanation of why only the English AC retained its frequency and productivity rate. Three language-internal factors are… read more
2015 Lexicalization and grammaticalization: The case of the verbo-nominal expressions be on the/one’s way/road Functions of Language 22:2, pp. 232–263 | Article
In this article we show that verbo-nominal expressions be on the/one’s way/road emerged as lexical composite predicates in Old English. These templates came to be elaborated by directional adjuncts, adjuncts describing states or events, and purpose clauses. In Late Modern English, the structure… read more
2013 Passive auxiliaries in English and German: Decline versus grammaticalisation of bounded language use Comparative Studies in Early Germanic Languages: With a focus on verbal categories, Diewald, Gabriele, Leena Kahlas-Tarkka and Ilse Wischer (eds.), pp. 71–100 | Article
The passive construction constitutes a marked difference between English, which uses the auxiliary be, and German, which uses werden ‘become’. Originally, however, both languages used both verbs. In this paper I argue, based on evidence from Old English, early Middle English, Tatian and Otfrid,… read more
2012 Review of Moore (2011): Quoting Speech in Early English English Text Construction 5:2, pp. 300–306 | Review
2012 On ways of being on the way: Lexical, complex preposition and aspect marker uses International Journal of Corpus Linguistics 17:2, pp. 229–258 | Article
This article presents a case study of a set of constructions containing the related way-nouns road, way, track and route, exemplified by (i) the farm road to the house, (ii) A senior Soviet official is on his way to the Iraqi capital, (iii) spies Burgess and Maclean escaped from Britain en route to… read more
2008 The Old English copula weorðan and its replacement in Middle English English Historical Linguistics 2006: Selected papers from the fourteenth International Conference on English Historical Linguistics (ICEHL 14), Bergamo, 21–25 August 2006, Gotti, Maurizio, Marina Dossena and Richard Dury (eds.), pp. 23–48 | Article
With the aid of a specially compiled corpus, this paper accounts for the replacement – mainly by become – of weorðan ‘become’, whose use rapidly decreased in Middle English. Drawing on Goldbergian construction grammar, the paper posits the existence of a lexeme-independent network of copular… read more