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Article published In:
Studies in Language
Vol. 46:1 (2022) ► pp.220–257

The development of locative relative markers

From typology to sociolinguistics (and back)

ORCID logo | University of Bologna
| KU Leuven

The accessibility hierarchy was first proposed by Keenan & Comrie (1977) to describe the cross-linguistic distribution of relative markers in terms of likelihood of relativization of different syntactic roles. The hierarchy is also commonly believed to reflect constraints on possible changes in the domain of relativization. For example, the hierarchy predicts that locative relatives that develop into general relativizers should expand their functional range in a step-by-step fashion from lower to higher roles. In this paper, we revise existing claims about the diachrony of locative relatives. In doing so, we survey known cases of locative relatives that develop into general relativizers and we also discuss data from linguistic variation in non-standard varieties in European languages, with a focus on social variation in Italian. As we argue, data from Italian suggests that another possible cline of development of locative relatives should be acknowledged, that is, locative > concern > subject.

Keywords: diachronic typology, relative clause, locative relative, language variation, sociolinguistic variation, accessibility hierarchy
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The typology of relative clauses
    • 2.1Definition and parameters of variation
    • 2.2The accessibility hierarchy
  • 3.Locative relatives cross-linguistically
    • 3.1The encoding of locative relatives and the AH
    • 3.2The origin of locative relatives
    • 3.3The functional extension of locative relatives
  • 4.From interlinguistic to intralinguistic variation
    • 4.1Standard and non-standard uses of locative relatives in the languages of Europe
    • 4.2 Dove in social varieties of Italian
      • 4.2.1Data and methods
      • 4.2.2Results
  • 5.From locative to subject (via concern): A possible pathway of change
    • 5.1.1Stage I: locative > concern
    • 5.1.2Stage II: concern > subject
    • 5.1.3Revising the locative > relative development
  • 6.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
Published online: 21 May 2021
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.20013.bal
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ParlaTO Corpus
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