The road already traveled
Constructional analogy in lexico-syntactic change
Usage-based models of language have proposed a dynamic, organized system based on analogy, or the recognition of similarity. The potential role of analogy between similar forms or constructions, however, is not often discussed. If we aim to illustrate grammaticalization and other diachronic processes not through one construction at a time — but by quantitatively assessing the relationship between constructions — we may better address the role of analogy as a mechanism of change. This quantitative, diachronic, corpus-based examination of language-internal constructional analogy is based on four forms in Spanish: altamente ‘highly’, enormemente ‘enormously’, extraordinariamente ‘extraordinarily’, and extremadamente ‘extremely’. These forms all occur in at least two basic constructions, in which they function as modifiers of verbs and as modifiers of modifiers. Analogical “transference” of paths of change between forms is proposed as a cross-linguistic language-internal process. Not only do forms compete with each other, but they also may borrow the path another has taken.
Keywords: analogy, constructions, intensifiers, language change, Spanish
Published online: 29 April 2016
https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.40.1.02aar
https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.40.1.02aar
References
Aaron, Jessi Elana
Altenberg, Bengt
Anscombre, Jean-Claude
Arce Castillo, Angela
Arjona, Marina
Axenti, Eufrosinia
Barbieri, Federica
Berg, Thomas
Borst, Eugene
Boye, Kasper & Peter Harder
Bradac, J., A. Mulac & S. Thompson
Brown, Esther & Mayra Cortés-Torres
Bybee, Joan & John L. McClelland
Bybee, Joan & Dan I. Slobin
Cegala, D.J
De Cesare, Anna-Maria
Defour, Tine
2012 The pragmaticalization and intensification of verily, truly and really: A corpus-based study on the developments of three truth-identifying adverbs. In Manfred Markus, Yoko Iyeiri, Reinhard Heuberger & Emil Chamson (eds.), Middle and Modern English corpus linguistics: A multi-dimensional approach, 75–92. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 

Fettig, Adolf
Fischer, Olga
Fuentes Rodríguez, C
Gaarder, A.B
1966 Los llamados diminutivos y aumentativos en el español de México. PMLA 81(7). 585–595. http://www.jstor.org/stable/461214. (8 Dec 2015). 

García Z.C. & A.C. Muñoz
Giancole Ramat, Anna & Caterina Mauri
Givón, Talmy
Goldberg, Adele E
González-Díaz, V
Haiman, John
Heine, Bernd & Tania Kuteva
Hopper, Paul & Elizabeth Closs Traugott
Hosman, L.A
Huddleston, Rodney & Geoffrey K. Pullum et al.
Ito, R. & S. Tagliamonte
Kastovsky, D
Kennedy, G
Kuha, M
2005 Investigating the Spread of “so” as an intensifier: Social and structural factors. In Proceedings of the Twelfth Annual Symposium about Language and Society – Austin April 16-18, 2004, 217–227. Texas Linguistic Forum. http://studentorgs.utexas.edu/salsa/proceedings/2004/Kuha.pdf. (8 Dec 2015).
Langacker, Ronald W
Lenker, Ursula
Labov, William
Lorenz, Gunter
Macaulay, R
Mancera Rueda, A
2009 Una aproximación al estudio de los procedimientos de intensificación presentes en el discurso periodístico. Revista de Estudios Filológicos 171. http://www.tonosdigital.es/ojs/index.php/tonos/article/view/307/218. (8 Dec 2015).
Mehedindţi, T.S
2013 El español coloquial: La expresión del valor superlativo. Annals of “Dimitrie Cantemir” Christian University: Linguistics, Literature and Methodology of Teaching 12(1). 53–63. http://limbi-straine.ucdc.ro/doc/anale1_2013.pdf#page=53. (8 Dec 2015).
Méndez-Naya, Belén
Murphy, Bróna
Nevalainen, T
O’Barr, W.M
Ogura, Mieko & William S.-Y. Wang
Pahta, P
Paradis, Carita
Pelkey, Jamin
Peters, Hans
Poplack, Shana & Elisabete Malvar
Quirk, Randolph, Sidney Greenbaum, Geoffrey Leech, & Jan Svartvik
Rissanen, M
Salazar-García, V
Sancho Cremades, P
Sawada, O
Serradilla Castaño, Ana
Sowa, J
Stenström, Anna-Brita
Stoffel, Cornelis
Tagliamonte, S.A
Tanghe, S
Torres Cacoullos, Rena & James A. Walker
Traugott, Elizabeth Closs
2008 Grammaticalization, constructions and the incremental development of language: Suggestions from the development of degree modifiers in English. In Regine Eckardt, Gerhard Jäger, & Tonjes Veenstra (eds.), Variation, selection, development—Probing the evolutionary model of language change, 219–250. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
Traugott, Elizabeth Closs & Graeme Trousdale
Trousdale, Graeme
Cited by
Cited by 4 other publications
De Troij, Robbert & Freek Van de Velde
Flórez, Carmen Fernández
Kanwit, Matthew, Virginia Terán & Silvia Pisabarro Sarrió
Smet, Hendrik De, Frauke D’hoedt, Lauren Fonteyn & Kristel Van Goethem
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.