Auxiliary Selection in Spanish
Gradience, gradualness, and conservation
Author
Although usage-based linguistics emphasises the need for studies of language change to take frequency effects into account, there is a lack of research that tries to systematically model frequency effects and their relation to diffusion processes in language change. This monograph offers a diachronic study of the change in Spanish perfect auxiliary selection between Old and Early Modern Spanish that led to the gradual replacement of the auxiliary ser ‘be’ with the auxiliary haber ‘have’. It analyses this process in terms of the interaction between gradience, gradualness, and the conserving effects of frequency and persistence in language change. The study contributes to the theory and methodology of diachronic linguistics, additionally offering insights on how to explain synchronic grammatical variation both within a language and between languages. The book is of interest to the fields of Spanish and Romance linguistics, syntax, as well as historical and variationist linguistics.
[Studies in Language Companion Series, 155] 2014. xix, 313 pp.
Publishing status: Available
© John Benjamins
Table of Contents
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Conventions | pp. xiii–xiv
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List of tables | pp. xv–xvi
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List of figures | pp. xvii–xviii
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Acknowledgements | pp. xix–xx
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Chapter 1. Introduction | pp. 1–8
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Chapter 2. Theoretical prerequisites | pp. 9–38
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Chapter 3. A constructional approach to Spanish auxiliary selection | pp. 39–74
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Chapter 4. A model of linguistic disappearances | pp. 75–104
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Chapter 5. Methodology and corpus | pp. 105–136
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Chapter 6. Auxiliary selection in Old Spanish | pp. 137–184
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Chapter 7. Gradualness and conservation in the loss of ser + PtcP | pp. 185–262
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Chapter 8. Conclusions | pp. 263–276
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References | pp. 277–298
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Chapter 9. Appendix | pp. 299–308
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Index | pp. 309–314
“Combining empirical scrutiny and insightful theoretical discussion, Malte Rosemeyer provides an up-to-date analysis of perfect auxiliary selection in the history of Spanish. He takes into account a wide variety of potential determinants of the choice between HAVE and BE auxiliary forms, and offers a critical assessment of their relative importance and interrelatedness. More generally, this study significantly advances our understanding of the gradualness of morphosyntactic change, and of the role of frequency in diachronic explanation.”
Andreas Dufter, University of Munich
“This is a fascinating exploration of the diachronic change in the auxiliary selection system between Old and Early Modern Spanish. Drawing on work in linguistics, corpus analysis, and statistical modelling, the author presents an account that is not only comprehensive in its coverage of the interacting factors leading to increasing variation in auxiliary choice, but also rigorous in its theoretical reanalysis of this phenomenon. The book is invaluable and inspiring reading for linguists, variationists, and acquisitionists regardless of theoretical orientation.”
Antonella Sorace, The University of Edinburgh
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[no author supplied]
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Subjects
Main BIC Subject
CF/2ADS: Linguistics/Spanish
Main BISAC Subject
LAN009000: LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES / Linguistics / General