Article published in:
Theory and data in cognitive linguisticsEdited by Nikolas Gisborne and Willem B. Hollmann
[Studies in Language 36:3] 2012
► pp. 511–547
Reconstructing constructional semantics
The dative subject construction in Old Norse-Icelandic, Latin, Ancient Greek, Old Russian and Old Lithuanian
Jóhanna Barðdal | University of Bergen
Thomas Smitherman | Stockholm University
Valgerður Bjarnadóttir | Bergen University College
Serena Danesi | Oxford University
Gard B. Jenset | Oxford University Press
As the historical linguistic community is well aware, reconstructing semantics is a notoriously difficult undertaking. Such reconstruction has so far mostly been carried out on lexical items, like words and morphemes, and has not been conducted for larger and more complex linguistic units, which intuitively seems to be a more intricate task, especially given the lack of methodological criteria and guidelines within the field. This follows directly from the fact that most current theoretical frameworks are not construction-based, that is, they do not assume that constructions are form-meaning correspondences. In order to meet this challenge, we present an attempt at reconstructing constructional semantics, and more precisely the semantics of the Dative Subject Construction for an earlier stage of Indo-European. For this purpose we employ lexical semantic verb classes in combination with the semantic map model (Barðdal 2007, Barðdal, Kristoffersen & Sveen 2011), showing how incredibly stable semantic fields may remain across long time spans, and how reconstructing such semantic fields may be accomplished.
Keywords: constructional semantics, Semantic reconstruction, Dative Subject Construction, lexical semantic verb classes, Indo-European
Published online: 30 November 2012
https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.36.3.03bar
https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.36.3.03bar
Cited by
Cited by 20 other publications
Barðdal, Jóhanna
2018.
In Non-Canonically Case-Marked Subjects [Studies in Language Companion Series, 200],
► pp. 1 ff. 
Barðdal, Jóhanna, Carlee Arnett, Stephen Mark Carey, Thórhallur Eythórsson, Gard B. Jenset, Guus Kroonen & Adam Oberlin
2016. Dative subjects in Germanic.
STUF - Language Typology and Universals 69:1 ► pp. 49 ff.
Barðdal, Jóhanna & Spike Gildea
2015.
In Diachronic Construction Grammar [Constructional Approaches to Language, 18],
► pp. 1 ff.
Benedetti, Marina & Chiara Gianollo
2020.
In Historical Linguistics 2017 [Current Issues in Linguistic Theory, 350],
► pp. 30 ff.
Booth, Hannah
2021. Revisiting the configurationality issue in Old Icelandic.
Glossa: a journal of general linguistics 6:1
Cennamo, Michela, Thórhallur Eythórsson & Jóhanna Barðdal
2015. Semantic and (morpho)syntactic constraints on anticausativization: Evidence from Latin and Old Norse-Icelandic.
Linguistics 53:4
Danesi, Serena & Jóhanna Barðdal
2018.
In Non-Canonically Case-Marked Subjects [Studies in Language Companion Series, 200],
► pp. 181 ff.
Daniels, Don
2017. A method for mitigating the problem of borrowing in syntactic reconstruction.
Studies in Language 41:3 ► pp. 577 ff.
Daniels, Don
2021. The issue of arbitrariness in syntactic reconstruction.
Folia Linguistica 55:s42-s2 ► pp. 393 ff.
Dewey-Findell, Tonya Kim & Stephen Mark Carey
2018.
In Non-Canonically Case-Marked Subjects [Studies in Language Companion Series, 200],
► pp. 213 ff.
Friedman, Victor A. & Brian D. Joseph
2018.
In Non-Canonically Case-Marked Subjects [Studies in Language Companion Series, 200],
► pp. 23 ff.
Hartmann, Stefan & Michael Pleyer
2021. Constructing a protolanguage: reconstructing prehistoric languages in a usage-based construction grammar framework.
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 376:1824
Haug, Dag Trygve Truslew, Marius Jøhndal & Per Erik Solberg
2019. An Unexpected Root Clause.
Linguistic Inquiry 50:3 ► pp. 649 ff.
Johnson, Cynthia A., Peter Alexander Kerkhof, Leonid Kulikov, Esther Le Mair & Jóhanna Barðdal
2019. Argument structure, conceptual metaphor and semantic change.
Diachronica 36:4 ► pp. 463 ff.
Krisch, T.
2013. Jacob Wackernagel. Lectures on Syntax. With Special Reference to Greek, Latin, and Germanic. Edited by DAVID LANGSLOW..
Kratylos 58:1 ► pp. 101 ff.
Pacchiarotti, Sara & Leonid Kulikov
2022. Bribri media tantum verbs and the rise of labile syntax.
Linguistics 60:2 ► pp. 617 ff.
Pat-El, Na'ama
2018.
In Non-Canonically Case-Marked Subjects [Studies in Language Companion Series, 200],
► pp. 155 ff.
Seržant, Ilja A.
2015.
In Perspectives on Historical Syntax [Studies in Language Companion Series, 169],
► pp. 117 ff.
Viti, Carlotta
2017. Semantic and cognitive factors of argument marking in ancient Indo-European languages.
Diachronica 34:3 ► pp. 368 ff.
Vázquez-González, Juan G. & Jóhanna Barðdal
2019. Reconstructing the ditransitive construction for Proto-Germanic: Gothic, Old English and Old Norse-Icelandic
.
Folia Linguistica 53:s40-s2 ► pp. 555 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 18 april 2022. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.