The role of typological drift in the development of the Romance subjunctive: A study in word-order change, grammaticalization and synthesis

325 Pages·2008·1.258 MB·English

by  Melissa Dae Murphy

Copyright

by

Melissa Dae Murphy

2008
The Dissertation Committee for Melissa Dae Murphy certifies that
this is the approved version of the following dissertation:

THE ROLE OF TYPOLOGICAL DRIFT IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF
THE ROMANCE SUBJUNCTIVE: A STUDY IN WORD-ORDER
CHANGE, GRAMMATICALIZATION AND SYNTHESIS

Committee:

____________________________________
Brigitte L. M. Bauer, Supervisor

____________________________________
Frederick Hensey, Supervisor

____________________________________
Chiyo Nishida

____________________________________
Knud Lambrecht

____________________________________
Máximo R. Salaberry
THE ROLE OF TYPOLOGICAL DRIFT IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF
THE ROMANCE SUBJUNCTIVE: A STUDY IN WORD-ORDER
CHANGE, GRAMMATICALIZATION AND SYNTHESIS

by

Melissa Dae Murphy, B.A.; M.A.

Dissertation
Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of
the University of Texas at Austin
in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements
for the Degree of
Doctor of Philosophy

The University of Texas at Austin
August 2008
3324483

3324483
2008
For my family
Acknowledgements

I consider myself extremely fortunate to have been influenced by a wide
range of academic experiences and would like to thank the people who, over the
years, have contributed in some way to the achievement of this goal. First and
foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Brigitte L.M. Bauer. As
my dissertation supervisor, she continuously provided thoughtful comments and
suggestions, yet always encouraged me to work independently, developing my
own hypotheses and reaching my own conclusions. I truly believe this process has
been much more meaningful as a result. Brigitte has been incredibly generous
with her time, both while in the Netherlands and while in the United States. I am
extremely indebted to her for her guidance and support.
I would also like to thank my co-supervisor, Frederick Hensey, for his
energetic enthusiasm toward my somewhat unconventional topic; it is greatly
appreciated. Many thanks also go to Knud Lambrecht, for his attention to detail
and constant willingness to provide valuable feedback, and to Chiyo Nishida and
Rafael Salaberry, who offered perspectives that were extremely useful during the
revision of my final manuscript.
Finally, I would like to acknowledge several professors who have made an
impact on me over the years. Special thanks go to: Jean-Pierre Montreuil and
Carlos Solé, for their advice and encouragement during the early stages of my
v
doctoral program and candidacy, John B. Jensen, from Florida International
University, who was my link to the world of linguistics while I was pursuing my
M.A. in Spanish literature, and Robert Trammell, my first linguistics professor at
Florida Atlantic University, without whom I might not have embarked on this
journey.

vi
THE ROLE OF TYPOLOGICAL DRIFT IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF
THE ROMANCE SUBJUNCTIVE: A STUDY IN WORD-ORDER
CHANGE, GRAMMATICALIZATION AND SYNTHESIS

Publication No.__________

Melissa Dae Murphy, Ph.D.
The University of Texas at Austin, 2008

Supervisors: Brigitte L. M. Bauer and Frederick Hensey

In spite of the vast amount of research on mood in Romance languages, certain
fundamental issues are clearly underrepresented, particularly in the field of
diachronic linguistics. With this in mind, the primary goal of this dissertation is
to provide a comprehensive explanation for developments in Romance mood
distribution. Unlike the majority of existing research, this approach does not
analyze mood in isolation, nor does it look outward for language-external
explanations. Instead, changes in mood usage are related to major typological
developments via several interconnected analyses which rely heavily on data from
Latin and medieval Spanish and French.
This investigation, which takes as its starting point the well-attested
typological shift from OV to VO word order, addresses four major issues. The
vii
first of these is branching congruency, whereby post-posed subordinate clauses
are more closely associated with explicit subordinating conjunctions. This
hypothesis is tested via a quantitative analysis of Latin data, in order to establish a
link between conjunctions and VO word order. The development of these
subordinating elements is then analyzed within the grammaticalization
framework, which provides insight into the nature of specific Latin and Romance
forms, in addition to demonstrating the usefulness of certain theoretical notions.
The outcome of this process is a highly generalized Romance subordinator, which
is argued to have undergone partial synthesis with the subjunctive, evidenced by
an increase in both obligatoriness and contiguity.
Finally, these cumulative changes in the linguistic system are shown to
have had substantial destabilizing effects on the existing subjunctive / indicative
contrast. The significance of this claim is that, already in Latin, mood selection is
characterized by a loss of motivation and an increase in automaticity. As a result,
subsequent changes in mood distribution in Romance languages are not viewed
merely as reductive phenomena, but rather as signs of the refunctionalization of a
destabilized, yet viable, paradigm.

viii
Table of Contents
LIST OF TABLES AND ILLUSTRATIONS...................................................... xiii
ABBREVIATIONS FOR GRAMMATICAL TERMS......................................... xv
ABBREVIATIONS FOR LANGUAGES............................................................ xvi
ABBREVIATIONS FOR TEXTS CITED.......................................................... xvii
CHAPTER 1: THE ROMANCE SUBJUNCTIVE
1.1. Introduction........................................................................................... 1
1.2. Mood and Modality...............................................................................2
1.3. The Latin Subjunctive........................................................................... 6
1.4. Romance “Mood Loss” Phenomenon................................................. 13
1.4.1. Reduction in Subjunctive Morphology................................ 14
1.4.2. Reduction in Subjunctive Usage.......................................... 16
1.5. The Present Study............................................................................... 23
1.5.1. Hypotheses........................................................................... 23
1.5.2. Methodology........................................................................ 25
CHAPTER 2: REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE
2.1. Introduction......................................................................................... 27
2.2. Synchronic Research on the Romance Subjunctive............................ 28
2.2.1. Syntactic Analyses............................................................... 29
2.2.2. Semantic Analyses............................................................... 38
2.2.3. Pragmatic Analyses.............................................................. 54
2.2.4. Contributions of Synchronic Research................................ 62
2.3. Diachronic Research on the Romance Subjunctive............................ 64
2.3.1. Language-Specific Approaches........................................... 65
2.3.1.1. The Role of Phonology......................................... 66
2.3.1.2. The Role of Language Contact............................. 68
2.3.1.3. The Role of Semantic Shift................................... 72
2.3.2. Pan-Romance Approaches................................................... 76
ix