Papers by Malte Rosemeyer
International Journal for the Semiotics of Law - Revue internationale de Sémiotique juridique, 2021
The Spanish future subjunctive (FS) demonstrates how linguistics can inform modern language polic... more The Spanish future subjunctive (FS) demonstrates how linguistics can inform modern language policy. The FS is described as an archaism to be eliminated from contemporary legal texts. We analyze a corpus of over 3000 tokens of the FS in Spanish legal texts dated between the 13th and 16th century. The FS has two functions in legal discourse. The casuistic function allows for indicating paradigmatic subordination; the forwarding function introduces new information. Our quantitative results suggest an increase in the usage frequency of the FS in legal discourse, where an inverse trend appears in other genres. As shown by a linear regression analysis, the FS started appearing significantly closer to the beginning of the law article, indicating an increase in the forwarding function in time. In view of our results, reformers of legal Spanish should consider the functions of the FS in legal discourse when advising its suppression.
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This study analyzes the pragmatics of in-situ-wh-and complex bare-wh-interrogatives such as ¿de q... more This study analyzes the pragmatics of in-situ-wh-and complex bare-wh-interrogatives such as ¿de qué? 'of what?' in spoken Spanish, developing a typology of their discourse functions. The interpretation of such postposed-wh-interrogatives depends on inference processes by the hearer that take as cues both the degree to which the interrogative proposition and the referent of the interrogative pronoun/adverb are cognitively accessible. This relationship follows from the fact that on the basis of the combination of the information states of the interlocutors (i.e., the degree of accessibility of the proposition and the referent of wh) with the information structure of this type of wh-interrogatives, the utterer of the wh-interrogative can predict the pragmatic effect of a given postposed-wh-interrogative token in the hearer. I establish a hierarchy of the different discourse functions on the basis of their potential to change the current Question under Discussion (QuD). In particular, the analysis demonstrates that postposed-wh-interrogatives that realize or imply a challenge to a previous utterance by the addressee of the interrogative have weaker pragmatic conditions than other uses. Consequently, I theorize that challenge postposed-wh-interrogatives are crucial for our understanding of the expansion of the use of in-situ-wh-interrogatives in languages such as French and Brazilian Portuguese.
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Open Linguistics, 2018
The present paper analyzes the discourse-pragmatic function of introducing Spanish qué ‘what’-int... more The present paper analyzes the discourse-pragmatic function of introducing Spanish qué ‘what’-interrogatives with the concessive connective pero ‘but’. In some contexts, a pero-preface contributes to the interpretation of the interrogative as the realization of an interactional challenge rather than a request for information (e.g. an information question). We explore the inferential processes by which the pero-preface leads to an interpretation of the interrogative as an interactional challenge and try to demonstrate that this challenge function of pero-prefaced qué-interrogatives may not only achieved ‘ad hoc’ by a local combination of the constitutive elements, but also by conventionalized form-function associations that developed diachronically. In a first step, we analyze pero-prefaced qué-interrogatives in a corpus of spoken Present Day Spanish. There are three main functions of pero-prefaces: to signal that a previous answer to the same interrogative is insufficient, to insist on an answer to a previously unattended request, or to challenge an immediately preceding action by an interlocutor. Using methodology from variationist linguistics, we identify entrenched patterns of pero-prefaced qué-interrogatives that have conventionalized the challenge function. In a second step, we conduct a diachronic variationist analysis of the development of Spanish pero-prefaced qué-interrogatives between 1700 and 1975, testing the hypothesis that the challenge reading developed later than the question reading. Our results show that due to their largely monological nature, the same inferential processes cued by pero lead to different discourse functions in historical texts. Over time, however, the use of pero-prefaced interrogatives started to become more likely in constructed dialogues. We argue that this change reflects an ongoing conventionalization of the challenge function in pero-prefaced interrogatives in spoken language.
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Diachronica, 2018
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Auxiliary verbs are known to grammaticalize from lexical verbs, but how do lexical verbs acquire ... more Auxiliary verbs are known to grammaticalize from lexical verbs, but how do lexical verbs acquire verbal complements to begin with? This article provides an account of the semantic and pragmatic basis of grammaticalization of the Spanish anterior ('perfect') acabar + de + infinitive from a lexical source construction meaning FINISH. Based on a description of FINISH in terms of its qualia structure, we argue that verbs meaning FINISH are lexically unsaturated, with an event variable that must be assigned a value, whether implicitly by inference or explicitly by a verbal complement. We show on the basis of historical corpus data from the 13 th –18 th centuries that overt lexical verb complements are initially motivated by informativity: the infinitive is used to describe the event when the type of event is unexpected. However, this original constructional meaning is eventually lost due to the process of overtification, which has not been discussed in the literature on language change. Writers started using the infinitive in contexts in which the finished event is not unexpected. The subsequent development of the temporal meaning is motivated by the failure of listeners to accommodate too-costly presuppositions in a particular syntactic context, leading to the reanalysis of the constructional meaning. Consequently, overtification was a necessary condition for the subsequent temporalization of the construction. These findings shed light on possible reasons for the grammaticalization of auxiliary verb constructions, at both early and later stages in their developmental histories.
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This paper explores the relationship between refunctionalization and usage frequency. In particul... more This paper explores the relationship between refunctionalization and usage frequency. In particular, it argues that (a) refunctionalization is more likely for low-frequency construction than high-frequency constructions and that (b) high-frequency patterns are more likely candidates as models for refunctionalization processes than low-frequency patterns. It proposes that folk etymology processes be characterized as a type of refunctionalization process because in folk etymology, obsolescent and semantically void morphemes are replaced with morphemes that actually serve a function in language. This assumption allows for an empirical investigation of refunctionalization using an exploratory questionnaire study. The results indicate that usage frequency indeed plays a role in folk etymology processes and consequently, refunctionalization. In particular, participants were more likely to accept false etymologies if the proposed etymon was of high usage frequency than if it was of low usage frequency. In summary, the present study proposes a way to study refunctionalization processes in synchrony.
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En el presente trabajo analizaremos la variación entre deber + INF y deber + de + INF en el corpu... more En el presente trabajo analizaremos la variación entre deber + INF y deber + de + INF en el corpus diacrónico multidimensional GRADIA. Nuestros resultados indican que la diferencia entre deber + INF y deber + de + INF en términos de modalidad está condicionada por el género textual. En el español antiguo no encontramos una diferencia entre las dos perífrasis respecto de la modalidad. En el español renacentista deber + de + INF experimenta un fuerte incremento en la frecuencia de uso relativa, y es más proclive a expresar la modalidad epistémica que deber + INF. El análisis sugiere que este efecto es en parte debido a la preferencia por utilizar la variante prepositiva en los textos de baja formalidad, ya que la modalidad epistémica es más probable en estos géneros textuales que en textos de un alto grado de formalidad. No obstante, en el marco del rápido descenso del uso de deber + de + INF después del siglo XVIII esta interacción entre género textual y modalidad se invierte: en el español premoderno y moderno, el parámetro de la modalidad solo parece ser significativo dentro de textos de alta formalidad. Este hecho nos lleva a formular la hipótesis de que el incipiente proceso de sustitución de deber + INF por deber + de + INF se frustró a causa de procesos de normativización sobre esta oposición después del siglo XVIII.
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In this paper, we demonstrate that like frequency, morphosyntactic persistence can have a conserv... more In this paper, we demonstrate that like frequency, morphosyntactic persistence can have a conserving effect on language change. To substantiate this claim, we analyze the alternation between the Spanish past subjunctive forms ending in –ra and –se (as in comiera and comiese ‘had eaten’). Due to the ongoing replacement of –se by –ra, persistence and frequency are the best predictors of the alternation in our data. First, the persistence effect of a prior –se is significantly greater than the persistence effect of a prior –ra. Second, although –se is basically restricted to third person singular morphology in contexts without persistence, when primed by –se this restriction is drastically reduced. Our results also shed light on the relationship between frequency and persistence in language change. Although both result in conservation, the conserving effect of frequency causes irregularity such as the paradigmatic atrophy of Spanish –se forms. In contrast, persistence can temporarily re-establish paradigmatic regularity and consequently strengthen the cognitive representation of obsolescing constructions. However, this resuscitating effect of persistence appears to be restricted to low-frequency –se forms; because they are generally more entrenched, the activation of –se high-frequency forms relies less on persistence effects.
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This study applies multinomial regression analysis to a parallel corpus of Spanish medieval trans... more This study applies multinomial regression analysis to a parallel corpus of Spanish medieval translations of the Bible in order to study the different factors that condition variation in the expression of possession in Old Spanish. Our methodology allows us to determine the degree to which less frequent possessive constructions (ART+POSS, as in la su casa ‘the his house’, GEN, as in la casa de él ‘the house of him’ and ART/BARE, as in la casa ‘the house’) can be considered competitors to the dominant POSS construction (as in su casa ‘his house’) as a function of usage context differences. In comparison to the POSS construction, the ART+POSS construction usually expresses pragmatic functions such as reverence, the GEN construction is typically used to either disambiguate a reference and the ART/BARE construction is bound to contexts in which the possessor is highly accessible. Crucially, the analysis also sheds light on historical changes in the balance between structural and contextual constraints on the use of these different variants. Whereas in the 13th century, structural and stylistic constraints are almost equally important, the importance of structural constraints diminishes in the 15th century. The study thus illustrates how in reductive processes of language change, variation due to structural constraints yields to stylistic variation.
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This paper compares the diachronic development of tornar(e) + a + infinitive (henceforth abbrevia... more This paper compares the diachronic development of tornar(e) + a + infinitive (henceforth abbreviated RETURN + INF) constructions in Spanish, Catalan, and Italian, a topic that especially for Catalan and Italian has not received much attention. I develop and explore the hypothesis that due to their lexical origin, iterative constructions develop from a restitutive to a repetitive function. A diachronic analysis of a corpus of RETURN + INF tokens from the three languages suggests that the grammaticalization of RETURN + INF constructions can be measured in terms of (a) actionality and (b) restructuring as mirrored in the possibility of clitic climbing. A statistical analysis using generalized linear mixed-effects regression modeling demonstrates an interplay between restructuring and the actionality of the predicates in the development of RETURN + INF constructions: the grammaticalization process affects state, achievement, and accomplishment predicates before activity predicates because activity predicates exclude a restitutive meaning. The paper thus identifies a grammaticalization path for RETURN + INF constructions common to three Romance languages that suggests a link between typological and diachronic observations. At the same time, it identifies differences in the diachronic development of these periphrases between the Ibero-Romance languages and Italian. In addition, it proposes a statistical means of assessing quantitative differences in the degree to which a verbal periphrasis is grammaticalized across related languages.
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Rosemeyer, Malte (Under review): Anteriors and resultatives in Old Spanish. In Garachana, Mar, Sandra Montserrat and Claus Pusch (eds.), From Composite Predicates to Verbal Periphrases in Romance Languages. Amsterdam, Philadelphia: John Benjamins., 2014
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Rosemeyer, Malte (Under review): Entrenchment and discourse traditions in Spanish auxiliary selection. In Kailuweit, Rolf and Malte Rosemeyer (eds.), Auxiliary Selection Revisited: Gradience and Gradualness. Berlin, New York: De Gruyter., 2014
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Rosemeyer, Malte (In press): Modelling frequency effects in language change. In Behrens, Heike and Stefan Pfänder (eds.), Again on Frequency. Effects in Language. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter., 2014
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Rosemeyer, Malte (In press): How usage rescues the system: persistence as conservation. In Adli, Aria, Marco García García and Göz Kaufmann (eds.), System, Usage, and Society. Berlin, New York: De Gruyter., 2015
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Garachana, Mar and Malte Rosemeyer (2011): Rutinas léxicas en el cambio gramatical. El caso de las perífrasis deónticas e iterativas. Revista de Historia de la Lengua Española 6. 35-60., 2011
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Rosemeyer, Malte (2013): Tornar and volver: The interplay of frequency and semantics in compound tense auxiliary selection in Medieval and Classical Spanish. In Van Gelderen, Elly, Jóhanna Barðdal and Michela Cennamo (eds.), Argument Structure in Flux, 435-458. Amsterdam, Philadelphia: Benjamins. , 2013
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Papers by Malte Rosemeyer
(1) Eu ey por bem que Nicolaao Jusarte, fidalgo de minha casa, a que tenho ffeito merce da capitania de um dos navios que vão pera a India nesta armada d'outubro, vaa no navio do Porto
(TBCHP, séclo XVI, retirado de: Amaral/Howe 2012)
No português contemporâneo, o uso do PPC fica excluído em contextos desse tipo, já que adquiriu uma semântica iterativa ou durativa (2).
(2) Eu tenho feito mercê a Nicolasao Jusarte *uma vez.
Mesmo que o processo histórico que causou esta mudança foi analisado em vários estudos (Mattos e Silva 1991; Viotti 1998; Wigger 2004; Amaral/Howe 2012; Becker 2016), ainda não existe análise que tenha em conta a variação dialetal nem considere dados da oralidade conceitual. Além disso os estudos existentes não contribuem dados quantitativos para comprovar as suas propostas sobre a natureza da mudança.
O nosso estudo se baseia na análise de aproximadamente 2700 ocorrências do PPC retiradas dum corpus de peças de teatro que datam do período entre 1733 e 2016. Num primeiro passo, nossa análise quantitativa classifica as distintas leituras do PPC "de base para cima” em virtude da interação de vários parâmetros que entram no jogo na configuração das diferentes leituras. Na descrição da interação dessas características colocaremos ênfase no traço de pluriacionalidade que iria ter uma importância fundamental para o processo de mudança. No exemplo (3), focaliza-se na pluralidade de eventos, aproveitando da interação entre as propriedades do participio, o sintagma de objeto direto plural quantificado e intervalo explícito de mais de 30 anos:
(3) CYSTEX tem auxiliado milhões de pessoas há mais de 30 anos.
(O Estado/SC/1960, retirado de: Coelho A)
Num segundo passo, esta classificação automática das leituras semânticas permite elaborar um panorama completo da mudança semântica do PPC no português brasileiro, ressaltando o século XIX como fundamental para esta mudança. A análise também considera as diferenças no nível da oralidade conceitual das peças de teatro e identifica as peças menos formais como catalisadores da mudança semântica sob exame.
(1) Sepades que Sancho Sánchez, de ý de Trugiello, me mostró una carta del rey don Fernando, [...] en que fiziera merced a Garci Sánchez, su hermano...
(Carta de Alfonso XI, 1329, Madrid, CODEA-0125)
(2) ... en nombre de las dichas rentas había ido a suplicar a sus altezas que fuesen tornados y restituidos a los encabeçados de las dichas rentas los dichos maravedís que montase la dicha gracia que se había fecho de la dicha alcavala...
(Actas sobre una reunión, 1500, Toledo, CODEA-0378)
Nuestra comunicación analiza el papel de la variación diatópica en el proceso de retracción de cantara y expansión de había cantado. El auge de había cantado es parte del proceso general de gramaticalización de los tiempos compuestos, tal y como la evolución de las formas habré cantado (Rodríguez Molina 2010: 1202-2012) o haya cantado (Octavio de Toledo y Huerta 2017). Estos estudios ponen de manifiesto un continuo dialectal en el cambio, puesto que el uso de haber + participio se implementó primero en las variedades orientales, para difundirse solo tardíamente en las variedades occidentales de la península. Nuestra hipótesis de partida es, por tanto, que el proceso de sustitución de cantara por había cantado discurrió por la misma senda dialectal.
El análisis también presta atención a diferencias funcionales entre los usos temporales de cantara y había cantado. Rodríguez Molina (2010) documenta una cronología de la evolución de los tiempos compuestos respecto de (a) la animacidad del referente del sujeto, (b) la transitividad del verbo auxiliado y la clase del objeto, (c) la diátesis y (d) la combinatoria léxica. Si la substitución de cantara por había cantado forma parte de la expansión global de los tiempos compuestos, la variación entre cantara y había cantado estaría regulada por los parámetros (a–d).
Para comprobar estas hipótesis, llevamos a cabo un análisis cuantitativo que se sirve de la metodología variacionista histórica a partir de los datos contenidos en los textos cronológica y filológicamente fiables de los documentos del corpus CODEA+ (GITHE 2015) y del OSTA (Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies 2019).
Portuguese and Galician are the only Romance languages whose system of positive response to polar questions can be classified as a consistent echo system (Urbano et al 1993; Kato & Tarallo 1992; Armstrong 2008). In Brazilian Portuguese, the canonical response to a polar question is to repeat the verb of the question, as in (1). Speakers can opt to modify the response by either adding the subject personal pronoun before (2) or the polar particle sim ‘yes’ after the repeated verb (3). While the use of sim alone is virtually non-existent, isso ‘that’s right’ constitutes a competing construction (4).
(1) HEL: [...] isso aqui é pra divisão? ‘Is this here for division?’
LUC: é
‘It is’
(2) *MAR:
[...] agora cê entendeu a confusãozinha que deu? ‘Do you now understand the confusion caused by this?’
(3) ANT:
[...] ô W., N. tá perguntando se dá p' cê olhar a garganta do T.? [...]
*ELI: eu entendi, é isso mesmo ‘I understand, that’s it’
‘W., N. is asking you if you could take a look at T.’s throat?’ WIL: dá sim
‘Yes, I can’
(4) *COJ: [...] ea chegou agora
‘She has arrived now’
*JAD: isso, cabou de chegar agora, né
‘That’s right, she has just arrived, right’
To our knowledge, only one study (Armstrong 2008) analyzes the pragmatic differences in the usage of these constructions. She argues that the use of the four constructions is governed by (a) the beliefs of the speaker of the utterance referred to by the affirmative response and (b) the degree to which there exists evidence for the utterance referred to by the affirmative response in discourse. Thus, speakers reinforce their canonical responses with preposed subject pronouns (2) or a postposed sim (3) when responses are unexpected, on the basis of their assumptions regarding the beliefs of the speaker of the previous utterance and the type of evidence for this utterance. In contrast, the use of isso is used to ratify previously asserted information. Armstrong does not however provide qualitative or quantitative evidence for her analysis.
Our study offers a quantitative analysis of the discourse functions of the response types in (1)–(4) in a corpus of spontaneous spoken conversations in Brazilian Portuguese. We analyze in particular the pragmatic value of repetition in affirmative responses. Crucially, however, we show that affirmative responses in Brazilian Portuguese are not necessarily echoic, as in (5), where é ‘is’ is used to echo the previous verb foi ‘was’.
(5) *BRU: foi o quê, o Mussolini que proibiu de usar o tratamento formal "Lei”, nũ foi? ‘It was what, Mussolini who prohibited the use of the formal address term “Lei”, right?’
*TOM: é, não, porque o "Lei” nũ é de origem italiana; é de origem anglo-saxônica
‘It is, no, because the “Lei” is not of Italian origin, it is of Anglo-Saxon origin’
We hypothesize that (a) echoic affirmative responses are more elaborate in counterexpectation contexts because there is a greater need for emphatic assertion and (b) the non-echoic marker é has been conventionalized as a marker of neutral affirmation, specifically in contexts in which no reply is required. We test the accuracy of these assumptions by analyzing the precise relationship between the affirmative response and the previous utterance in terms of (a) the speech act of the previous utterance (question or declarative?), (b) the expectedness of the response and (c) whether or not the response is echoic. Our study thus adds to the overall topic of the workshop by specifically addressing the question of which aspects of repetition are central in interaction.