From evaluative to deontic predication: Evidence for the grammaticalization path from clausal complementation strategies

A shift from evaluation (‘it is good, fitting’, etc.) to deontic modality is well known from the literature on grammaticalization. This article looks at it from the viewpoint of complementation. In Lithuanian, a complementation strategy characteristic of evaluative predicates has been carried over...

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Main Author: Axel Holvoet
Format: Article
Language:deu
Published: Vilnius University 2024-12-01
Series:Kalbotyra
Online Access:https://ojs.test/index.php/kalbotyra/article/view/37936
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author Axel Holvoet
author_facet Axel Holvoet
author_sort Axel Holvoet
collection DOAJ
description A shift from evaluation (‘it is good, fitting’, etc.) to deontic modality is well known from the literature on grammaticalization. This article looks at it from the viewpoint of complementation. In Lithuanian, a complementation strategy characteristic of evaluative predicates has been carried over to deontic contexts. The complementation strategy referred to consists in the reuse of an originally conditional adverbial clause structure with evaluative predicates as a means of avoiding the factive implication usually associated with evaluatives (cf. it is good that... : it would be good if...). The conditional clause type under discussion contains the anteriority converb in -us, which, as a result of the shift ‘evaluative → deontic’, has become characteristic of a set of deontic constructions where it competes with the infinitive. This development moreover involved processes of insubordination and resubordination. The relevance of the Lithuanian facts (apart from their intrinsic interest, also from the viewpoint of resubordination processes) consists in that the extension of the complementation type from evaluative to unambiguously deontic contexts provides palpable proof of the transition while the research has hitherto failed to find a cut-off point between evaluation and deontic modality.
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institution Kabale University
issn 1392-1517
2029-8315
language deu
publishDate 2024-12-01
publisher Vilnius University
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spelling doaj-art-c2d167ae8f6b462dbe789b1b0463d5aa2025-01-03T06:29:50ZdeuVilnius UniversityKalbotyra1392-15172029-83152024-12-017710.15388/Kalbotyra.2024.77.4From evaluative to deontic predication: Evidence for the grammaticalization path from clausal complementation strategiesAxel Holvoet0https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1744-5893Vilniaus universitetas A shift from evaluation (‘it is good, fitting’, etc.) to deontic modality is well known from the literature on grammaticalization. This article looks at it from the viewpoint of complementation. In Lithuanian, a complementation strategy characteristic of evaluative predicates has been carried over to deontic contexts. The complementation strategy referred to consists in the reuse of an originally conditional adverbial clause structure with evaluative predicates as a means of avoiding the factive implication usually associated with evaluatives (cf. it is good that... : it would be good if...). The conditional clause type under discussion contains the anteriority converb in -us, which, as a result of the shift ‘evaluative → deontic’, has become characteristic of a set of deontic constructions where it competes with the infinitive. This development moreover involved processes of insubordination and resubordination. The relevance of the Lithuanian facts (apart from their intrinsic interest, also from the viewpoint of resubordination processes) consists in that the extension of the complementation type from evaluative to unambiguously deontic contexts provides palpable proof of the transition while the research has hitherto failed to find a cut-off point between evaluation and deontic modality. https://ojs.test/index.php/kalbotyra/article/view/37936
spellingShingle Axel Holvoet
From evaluative to deontic predication: Evidence for the grammaticalization path from clausal complementation strategies
Kalbotyra
title From evaluative to deontic predication: Evidence for the grammaticalization path from clausal complementation strategies
title_full From evaluative to deontic predication: Evidence for the grammaticalization path from clausal complementation strategies
title_fullStr From evaluative to deontic predication: Evidence for the grammaticalization path from clausal complementation strategies
title_full_unstemmed From evaluative to deontic predication: Evidence for the grammaticalization path from clausal complementation strategies
title_short From evaluative to deontic predication: Evidence for the grammaticalization path from clausal complementation strategies
title_sort from evaluative to deontic predication evidence for the grammaticalization path from clausal complementation strategies
url https://ojs.test/index.php/kalbotyra/article/view/37936
work_keys_str_mv AT axelholvoet fromevaluativetodeonticpredicationevidenceforthegrammaticalizationpathfromclausalcomplementationstrategies