The Role of Inferencing in Semantic/ Pragmatic Cyclicity
The Case of Latin nunc and French or/maintenant
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21239852 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Maj-Britt Mosegaard Hansen (0000-0002-9522-591X, University of Manchester, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2018 |
| Volume | 4 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 127-146 |
| Publication date | 2018-01-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Open Linguistics (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2300-9969 • E-ISSN: 2300-9969 |
| Publisher | Walter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE) |
| DOI | 10.1515/opli-2018-0007 |
| OpenAlex | W2784490587 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
| References cited | 8 |
In this paper, I analyze the evolution of the Latin adverb/discourse marker NUNC and its Old and Modern French equivalents, or and maintenant, markers whose content-level source meanings are in all cases equivalent to English now. The analysis pays particular attention to the role of metonymic inference, and to bridging contexts. Showing that the three etymologically unrelated markers have remarkably similar (but crucially not identical) uses, both as temporal adjuncts and as pragmatic markers of various types, I argue that the diachronic changes undergone by these three items constitute a semantic/pragmatic cycle of a type that I call “onomasiological” (cf. Hansen 2015, fc). I suggest that cyclic developments at the level of semantics and pragmatics take place because source items that are semantically similar will favor similar types of contextual inferences. Furthermore, the fact that the range of uses of the items under consideration is not necessarily exactly identical from one cycle to the next supports an instructional view of semantics, which affords a central role in the process of meaning construction precisely to inferencing
Adverb · Epistemology · Grammaticalization · Inference · Linguistics · Metonymy · Pragmatics · Semantic change · Computer Science · Historical Linguistics and Language Studies · Linguistics and Discourse Analysis · Philosophy · Psychology · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation · Artificial Intelligence
On the role of context in grammaticalization
Die Sprachwissenschaft
Dictionnaire etymologique de la langue latine
The evolution of the Ancient Greek deverbal pragmatic markers áge, íthi and phére
Function, Structure, and Sound Change
Typology of sentence negation
On the Rise of Epistemic Meanings in English
| Citations per year | 0.71 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2019 - 2024 (6) |
| Highly cited | No |