This paper investigates the diachronic pathways that lead to the rise of complex predications. It suggests that the great variety of complex predicate constructions can be traced back to two major pathways. Both pathways begin their life as paratactic verb-complement constructions (complex VPs) under separate intonation contours. Both then condense into syntactic V-complement construction under a single intonation contour. In the first type, the complement clause begins as chained (conjoined) to the main clause, and the chain then condensed into a serial verb construction. In the second type, a finite main clause and a non-finite (nominalized) object clause undergo a similar condensation. Both types can then go on to create morphologically complex lexical verbs. Both thus share the general diachronic trend of parataxis-to-syntaxis to lexis, albeit with somewhat different synchronic properties of both the syntactic and lexical product.
2011. Auxiliary Verb Constructions (and Other Complex Predicate Types): A Functional–Constructional Overview. Language and Linguistics Compass 5:11 ► pp. 795 ff.
Calabrese, Rita
2018. Investigating Diachronic Variation and Change in New Varieties of English. In Encyclopedia of Information Science and Technology, Fourth Edition, ► pp. 1206 ff.
Calabrese, Rita
2019. Investigating Diachronic Variation and Change in New Varieties of English. In Advanced Methodologies and Technologies in Media and Communications [Advances in Multimedia and Interactive Technologies, ], ► pp. 24 ff.
Dachkovsky, Svetlana, Rose Stamp & Wendy Sandler
2018. Constructing Complexity in a Young Sign Language. Frontiers in Psychology 9
2017. Los tipos de cláusulas de complemento en o’dam (tepehuano del sureste). LIAMES: Línguas Indígenas Americanas 17:1 ► pp. 79 ff.
Tseng, Yu-Ching
2021. Markedness relation, identity avoidance, and clausal recursion in Mandarin Chinese. Poznan Studies in Contemporary Linguistics 57:3 ► pp. 429 ff.
Vinogradov, Igor
2017. From enclitic to prefix: diachrony of personal absolutive markers in Q’eqchi’. Morphology 27:1 ► pp. 105 ff.
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