Between demonstrative and definite: A grammar competition model of the evolution of French l-determiners

Simonenko, Alexandra; Carlier, Anne

doi:10.1017/cnj.2020.14

Cited by 6 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 41 publications

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“…Our morpho-syntactic analysis of D EXPL contrasts with that of Simonenko & Carlier (2016), who develop a semantic treatment that treats all exponents of l - as semantically weak Ds. Moreover, they assume that n NON-CT does not occur with D in OF; for the two OF texts that we study, though D-drop is more frequent with n NON-CT , it is not obligatory.…”

Section: Tracking the Trajectory Of φ-Featuresmentioning

confidence: 89%

The trajectory of φ-features on Old French D and n

Déchaine

Dufresne

2018

Can. J. Linguist.

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Old French (OF) determiners (D), which are optional, show a three-way split between definite (def), indefinite(indf), and expletive(expl) D. We develop a nano-syntactic analysis of these three paradigms, according to which the nominal spine is associated with a series of functional heads that include Number, Gender, D, and Kase. We test the predictions of the formal analysis with a quantitative analysis of corpus data from two 12th century Anglo-Norman texts – Le voyage de saint Brendan (B) and Lais de Marie de France (MdF) – which indicates that over a 60-year span, there are changes in the distribution of D. This presents itself in three ways. First, a decline in expletive D in MdF correlates with an increase in the use of D with masculine (m) non-count nouns (nNON-CT) Second, while B lacks an overt indefinite plural (pl) D, MdF has one in the form of des. Third, with count nouns(nCT), while feminine (f) nouns favour the absence of determiners in B, there is no gender effect in MdF. While the first two changes are predicted by the formal analysis, the third is not. More broadly, the results of our quantitative study provide a more nuanced picture of the factors that govern the distribution of D in OF: they confirm that – relative to conditioning the absence of D (D-drop) – definiteness, grammatical function, and number are stable factors, gender is not a stable factor, and word order does not play a significant role.

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Section: Tracking the Trajectory Of φ-Featuresmentioning

confidence: 89%

The trajectory of φ-features on Old French D and n

Déchaine

Dufresne

2018

Can. J. Linguist.

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“…While we cannot claim that the use of the definite article with anaphoric referents predates its use with unique referents, the differences in frequencies are quite striking. These differences may be due to the fact that the anaphoric context, while based on familiarity, may also satisfy uniqueness conditions, and would thus be more likely to appear as definite at the time of language change (see also Simonenko & Carlier 2020). This assumption is further explored in 5.3 and we will return to it in the concluding section.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Familiar vs. unique in a diachronic perspective. Case study of the rise of the definite article in North Germanic

Piotrowska

Skrzypek

2021

Glossa: A Journal of General Linguistics

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The aim of the present study is to follow the development of the suffixed definite article in North Germanic, in particular taking into account the unique reference expressed by the nascent article. The study is based on the corpora of Old Swedish, Old Danish and Old Icelandic texts written between 1200 and 1550. Both qualitative and quantitative methods, such as logistic regression models, are applied. The study is grounded in the notions of familiarity and uniqueness, which we explore diachronically. The results indicate that the use of the definite article is much more frequent in familiar than in unique contexts in North Germanic in the periods studied, as a greater proportion of NPs with direct anaphors is definite in the oldest extant texts, as well as throughout the later periods, than the proportion of NPs with unique referents. NPs with unique referents are further shown to constitute a non-uniform group, where the 'more local' unique NPs (grounded in specific knowledge) appear more frequently with a definite article than the 'more global' unique referents (grounded in encyclopaedic knowledge).

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“…While Classical Latin did not have a consistent marking of (in)definiteness, from Late Latin onwards, definiteness marking at the noun phrase level increases (Carlier & De Mulder 2010). This increase continues in Old French, in the form of the definite determiner derived from Late Latin demonstrative ille (Simonenko & Carlier 2020a). It is therefore highly plausible that, in comparison with the Classical and even Late Latin baseline, the stage of the determiner loss in noun phrases with short possessives that we clearly observe in Old French after 1000 has been preceded by their rise in this context before 1000.…”

Section: A Failed Changementioning

confidence: 94%

“…The rise-and-fall evolution hypothesis is all the more plausible in view of the fact that the possessive only rarely co-occurs with a (demonstrative) determiner in Latin (including in Late Latin). In general, the rate of bare nouns in Classical Latin has been estimated to be 77% (Carlier & Lamiroy 2018), while at the beginning of the Old French period it is down to approximately 40% (Simonenko & Carlier 2020a). The empirical question at stake here is whether the rise-and-fall pattern can be detected in the observable time period, that is, after 800, or whether the rise of determiners with short possessives precedes the earliest preserved records in the vernacular.…”

Section: A Failed Changementioning

confidence: 99%

“…In order to account for the fact that across the three examined languages, the growth of determiner frequency is observed both in noun phrases without prenominal possessives and with long possessives, as well as, initially, with short possessives (as established on theoretical and partially empirical grounds), rather than postulating changes at the level of individual possessive forms, we propose, following Simonenko & Carlier (2020a), that there is a general rise in frequency of the grammar where (in)definiteness is obligatorily marked at the noun phrase level. In other words, a single shift happens: a replacement of a grammar parsing nominals with their modifiers as an NP structure, as in (33a), by a grammar which parses them as a DP, as in (33b).…”

Section: Grammatical Shiftmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The evolution of possessive phrases and the rise of DP in French, Spanish, and Portuguese

Simonenko

Carlier

2022

Glossa: A Journal of General Linguistics

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This paper deals with a historical shift in the semantics and morpho-syntax of pre-nominal possessives in Romance languages. Empirically, their evolution follows one of the two main diachronic paths: they either stop co-occurring with determiners (French, Spanish) or, else, start requiring their presence (Portuguese, Italian). Contrary to the common view which associates the first case with a transition from a modifier to a determiner semantics and the second with a retention of a modifier semantics (e.g. Alexiadou 2004), we propose that there is a common semantico-syntactic shift underlying both patterns, the rise of an innovative grammar which parses noun phrases with possessives as relational determiner phrases. The surface difference is accounted for by differences in what role a possessive plays in the spellout: either it serves as an exponent of D in the context of a relational component R (the first group) or as an exponent of R itself (the second group). We argue that this shift is part of a more general switch to a D-grammar, which happens as a consequence of an emerging pressure to morphologically mark existential presupposition at the noun phrase level. The more general change independently manifests itself as the overall rise in the frequency of determiners. On the basis of datasets from historical treebanks of French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian, we compare rates of change in possessive patterns, as well rates of the rise of determiner frequency across Romance.

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Between demonstrative and definite: A grammar competition model of the evolution of French l-determiners

Cited by 6 publications

References 41 publications

The trajectory of φ-features on Old French D and n

The trajectory of φ-features on Old French D and n

Familiar vs. unique in a diachronic perspective. Case study of the rise of the definite article in North Germanic

The evolution of possessive phrases and the rise of DP in French, Spanish, and Portuguese

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