The origin of the Welsh conjugated infinitive

Dados Bibliográficos

ID20344606
AutoresD Gary Miller (0000-0002-9311-1708, University of Florida, autor correspondente)
Ano2004
Volume21
Fascículo2
Páginas329-350
Data de publicação2004-12-22
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoDiachronica (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0176-4225 • E-ISSN: 1569-9714
EditoraJohn Benjamins Publishing Company (PUBLISHER • NL)
DOI10.1075/dia.21.2.04mil
OpenAlexW2077738527
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas3
Referências citadas9

Several issues of theoretical, typological, and historical interest are investigated. Conjugated infinitives (those with subject person agreement) are relatively rare but sufficiently well documented as to prompt some linguists to question the efficacy of the word nonfinite . Moreover, the conjugated infinitives that have received attention in the literature share significant properties crosslinguistically, which cannot be accidental. Historically, however, they require salient triggering data in contrast to prototypical infinitives (those without person agreement), which spontaneously evolve from nominalizations with a goal role. The Welsh case is particularly interesting because the infinitive remains characterized by i “to” + verbal noun, and it is less than obvious that Welsh has a conjugated infinitive (CI). Reanalysis of inflected prepositions (e.g., Middle Welsh i-daw “to him”) to infinitives with agreement (modern i-ddo “to-3SGM” ) yielded CIs. This reanalysis was forced by a semantic change of some control to causative verbs. The spread of the new CI to other predicates was enabled by a different kind of reanalysis, this one purely syntactic, raising yet another issue of general interest

Agreement · Causative · Dependent clause · Infinitive · Linguistics · Nominalization · Noun · Raising (metalworking) · Sentence · Subject (documents) · Verb · Welsh · Computer Science · History · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Linguistics and language evolution · Mathematics · Philosophy · Psychology · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation