Cyclic Change in Grammar and Discourse
(Oxford Studies in Historical and Diachronic Linguistics 54)
Eds. Maj-Britt Mosegaard Hansen & Richard Waltereit
Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2025.
https://academic.oup.com/book/60716
Abstract
This Open Access volume explores the long-held assumption that language change may proceed in a cyclical fashion. Cyclic change has recently attracted renewed interest, notably with respect to the evolution of negation (viz. the famous Jespersen Cycle) but also in relation to a wide range of other phenomena. Individual contributions take as their point of departure the hypothesis that cyclic change is pragmatically driven and analyse forms of cyclicity in morpho-syntax, the lexicon, and semantics and pragmatics, as well as interaction between these levels. They discuss the epistemological status of cycles; explore their relationship with other forms of change; examine the limits of the notion of cycles in language change; and discuss cyclicity from a cognitive-pragmatic and sociopragmatic perspective. The contributions form two clusters, with some overlap. The first cluster (Cyclic Change in Grammar) concentrates on changes to sentence grammar, whereas the second cluster of chapters (Cyclic Change in Discourse) looks at cyclic phenomena at the level of discourse grammar, as well as sociopragmatic phenomena. Both clusters feature a diverse range of case studies. The object languages are mainly Indo-European languages and language families, but Semitic, Sinitic, and Austronesian languages are also included. The contributions cover change involving negative constructions, demonstratives, possessives, modals, conditionals, aspectual adverbs, forms of coordination, modal particles, discourse connectives, address terms, and farewell routines. At the theoretical level, contributions are concerned with the place of cycles of pragmaticalization within a broader typology of change, with different forms of cyclicity, and with the cross-linguistic mechanisms that trigger cyclic and related changes.
Table of Contents:
- 1 Cyclic change in grammar and discourse: An introduction
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Part I Cyclic Change in Grammar
- 2 Additive negation in Dutch, from synchrony to diachrony, cyclical and noncyclical
- 3 The role of pragmatics in the cyclical renewal and reinforcement of demonstratives from Latin to Italian
- 4 Conflicting mechanisms in cycles of similative demonstrative reinforcement
- 5 Prototypicalization in cyclic change
- 6 The Continuative Cycle
- 7 The counterfactual life cycle: Cyclicity, pragmatics, and modality
- 8 Bidirectional cycles of indirectness in Mandarin
- 9 Morphological coordination in Sinitic languages as a form of cyclic change
- 10 ‘Or’ cycles
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Part II Cyclic Change in Discourse
- 11 A new look at grammaticalization versus pragmaticalization in the rise of pragmatic markers: A typology of linear and non-linear forms of evolution
- 12 A typology of cyclicity: Waves and spirals, constructions and features
- 13 Clines and cycles of meaning change
- 14 The rise and fall of Occitan be(n) and pla(n): A semantic-pragmatic cycle?
- 15 The role of reanalysis in the renewal of contrast: A cyclical evolution from simultaneity to opposition in Brazilian Portuguese
- 16 Spanish approximators en plan and rollo between two centuries: Microdiachrony of a pragmatic cycle?
- 17 Weakening of pragmatic force and socio-cultural factors: The pragmaticalization cycle of Italian grammatical deference
- 18 Pragmatic cycles in Spanish farewell routines
Keywords: cyclicity, grammaticalization, pragmaticalization, meaning change, discourse
Subjects: Historical and Diachronic Linguistics Grammar, Syntax and Morphology Pragmatics
Collection: Oxford Scholarship Online