15.3386, Diss: Socioling: del Moral: 'Grammaticalization...'

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LINGUIST List: Vol-15-3386. Fri Dec 03 2004. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 15.3386, Diss: Socioling: del Moral: 'Grammaticalization...'                                                                                                                                                           

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1)
Date: 27-Nov-2004
From: Carlos del Moral < juancmoral at uolsinectis.com.ar >
Subject: Grammaticalization of Spanish 'de': Reanalysis of '(de)queísmo' in Southern Cone Dialects 
 

	
-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Fri, 03 Dec 2004 15:32:32
From: Carlos del Moral < juancmoral at uolsinectis.com.ar >
Subject: Grammaticalization of Spanish 'de': Reanalysis of '(de)queísmo' in Southern Cone Dialects 
 

Institution: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 
Program: Department of Spanish, Italian and Portugese 
Dissertation Status: Completed 
Degree Date: 2004 

Author: Carlos Gabriel del Moral

Dissertation Title: Grammaticalization of Spanish 'de': Reanalysis of
'(de)queísmo' in Southern Cone Dialects 

Linguistic Field(s): 
Sociolinguistics
Syntax

Subject Language(s): Spanish (Language Code: SPN)

Dissertation Director(s):
Rajeshwari V. Pandharipande
Andrea Golato
Anna María Escobar
José Ignacio Hualde

Dissertation Abstract:

The present study proposes an account for (de)queísmo, i.e. the non-standard
insertion and omission of the preposition 'de' in the head position of embedded
tensed clauses. The research for this study focuses on quantitative and
qualitative analyses of the variation of (de)queísmo from a sociohistorical
perspective. This entails an analysis of gathered samples of dequeísmo across
time by means of computerized corpora of Medieval, Golden Age, and Contemporary
Spanish, and a fine-grained discourse analysis of (de)queísmo constructions in
naturally-occurring speech data from three attested (de)queísta varieties of the
Southern Cone of Latin America: Chilean, Rioplatense, and Cuyano Spanish. 

The study shows that the extension of the use of the preposition 'de' from more
concrete senses to a more abstract modal marker in (de)queísta clauses can be
construed as characteristic of a grammaticalization porcess known as
subjectification, i.e. the process whereby speakers/writers come over time to
develop meanings for expressions that encode their perspectives and attitudes
(Traugott and Dasher 2002:30). Evidence for this claim is provided by the
evolution of (de)queísta clauses, which shows an increasing degree of
subjectification, with a concomitant shift from a high to a low degree of the
speaker's commitment with respect to the proposition. This claim is supported by
the fact that across centuries there is an increase of (de)queísta clauses
embedded by verbs of cognitive process; they appear in direct object position,
which entails a closer sematinc relationship between the verb and the structure;
and this is heightened by a concomitant increase across centuries of (de)queísta
clauses with first person subject. 

The findings of the study also suggest that dequeísmo and queísmo are variants
of the same sociolinguistic variable in Southern Cone Spanish because both
variants are regulated by the same linguistic factors, i.e. types of verbs,
syntactic structures, grammatical person, and tense in the main clause.
Secondly,(de)queísmo seems to constitute a change in progress because it is a
stable, long-term variation that has persisted over many centuries. Thirdly, the
variation between Southern Cone dialects in the use of (de)queísmo reflects
different semantic nuances of 'de,' hence, different grammaticalization stages.





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LINGUIST List: Vol-15-3386