Title of article :
Analysing reanalysis
Author/Authors :
Hendrik De Smet، نويسنده ,
Issue Information :
روزنامه با شماره پیاپی سال 2009
Pages :
28
From page :
1728
To page :
1755
Abstract :
Reanalysis, as understood in traditional historical linguistics, lacks explanatory force as a mechanism of language change, because the assumption that reanalysis works through ambiguity is logically flawed, and because reanalysis postulates a shift from an old to a new representation without specifying the source of the new representation. Therefore, two cases of syntactic reanalysis are examined to produce a more convincing picture of how reanalysis operates. One is the development of the English adjectives worth and worthwhile when used with gerund clauses. The other is the emergence of the English for…to-infinitive. On the basis of these case-studies it is shown that reanalysis can be decomposed into more basic mechanisms of change. These mechanisms involve ‘category-internal change’ resulting from semantic change, ‘categorial incursion’ through analogy, and ‘automation’. Each of these underlying mechanisms obtain additional plausibility from the fact that they are firmly based in synchronic language use as understood in current usage-based models. One consequence is that reanalysis itself becomes to some extent epiphenomenal to the more basic mechanisms.
Keywords :
analogy , Gerund , Infinitive , semantic change , Syntactic change , Reanalysis
Journal title :
Lingua(International Review of General Linguistics)
Serial Year :
2009
Journal title :
Lingua(International Review of General Linguistics)
Record number :
1290813
Link To Document :
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