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Deictification: the development of secondary deictic meanings by adjectives in the English NP1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 November 2008

KRISTIN DAVIDSE ,
TINE BREBAN  and
AN VAN LINDEN
KRISTIN DAVIDSE
Affiliation:
Linguistics Department, KULeuven, Blijde-Inkomststraat 21, B-3000 Leuven, [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
TINE BREBAN
Affiliation:
Linguistics Department, KULeuven, Blijde-Inkomststraat 21, B-3000 Leuven, [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
AN VAN LINDEN
Affiliation:
Linguistics Department, KULeuven, Blijde-Inkomststraat 21, B-3000 Leuven, [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
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Abstract

In this article we make a case for recognizing deictification as a type of grammaticalization and semantic shift in the NP analogous to auxiliarization in the VP. The specific analogy we point out is between lexical verbs that grammaticalize into secondary auxiliaries bound by the finite, as in is going to, has to + verb, and lexically full adjectives that grammaticalize into postdeterminers bound by the primary determiner, as in a different, the same + noun. We present five case studies of the development of postdeterminer meanings, based on the analysis of diachronic and synchronic data. The adjectives studied are opposite, complete, old, regular and necessary, whose postdeterminer uses relate to the basic deictic systems of space, quantity, time and modality. Our analysis of the data shows that the mechanism of secondary deictification can be given a unified characterization as the semantic shift by which a general relation expressed by the adjective is given a subjective reference point in or relative to the speech event.

Type
Research Article
Information
English Language & Linguistics , Volume 12 , Issue 3 , November 2008 , pp. 475 - 503
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

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