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- Marttinen Larsson, Matti, 1992-
(författare)
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Construction-lexeme accessibility determines variable and changing coding length : Evidence from constructional and syntactic changes in Spanish
- 2024
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Levshina (2022, p. 230) introduces the Hypothesis of Construction–Lexeme Accessibility and Formal Length, positing that the accessibility of a lexeme is negatively correlated with the coding length of a construction (i.e., low accessibility renders longer coding, and vice versa). Analyzing morphosyntactic variation in contemporary English, Levshina (2022, p. 244) lends support to the hypothesis and suggests that this tendency may account for the evolution of existing constructions and the emergence of new ones. However, empirical testing on non-English languages and diachronic verifications are lacking. The present talk addresses this gap by examining two ongoing processes of language change in Spanish: one involving constructional complexification/lengthening (the conventionalization of a definite article in oblique relative clauses, illustrated in [1]), and one involving constructional reduction through conventionalized omission (the constructionalization of the exclamative construction la de que, emerged as a reduced variant of la cantidad de que, presented in [2]).(1) a. la casa en que nac-íDET.FEM.SG house in REL born-1SG-PRETb. la casa en la que nac-íDET.FEM.SG house in DET.FEM.SG REL born-1SG-PRET‘The house in which I was born’(2) a. la cantidad de vec-es queDET.FEM.SG amount of time.PL RELb. la de vec-es queDET.FEM.SG of time.PL REL‘The number of times that’The study analyzes constructional attraction (Schmid, 2000, 2010; see also Levshina, 2018; Schmid & Küchenhoff, 2013), focusing on the predictability of a lexeme given a construction.The predictions that the study tests are:I. The less accessible (predictable) an antecedent given an oblique relative clause, the greater the chances of the definite article.II. The more accessible (predictable) the lexeme given the la [cantidad / Ø] de que construction, the greater the chances of the shorter variant (la Ø de que).The first case study (1) analyzes data from Peruvian, Colombian, and Argentinian Spanish extracted from the historical CORDE (1850-1974) and CREA (1975-2000) corpora. The second study (2) compiles European Spanish data from the CORDE, CREA, and CORPES XXI (2001-2023) corpora. Using mixed-effects logistic regression analyses, the influence of the constructional predictability is analyzed in interaction with real time. Results consistently show a significant influence of constructional predictability on synchronic variation and diachronic change. As predicted in (I), the definite article emerges in oblique relative clauses with inaccessible antecedents, spreading over time to high-accessibility contexts. Regarding (II), the study reveals the initial omission of cantidad in highly accessible contexts, with the shorter variant spreading to increasingly inaccessible contexts over time. This study provides diachronic support for the Hypothesis of Construction–Lexeme Accessibility and Formal Length, offering a unified account of the influence of accessibility constraints on efficient coding and the relationship between efficiency and the actualization of language change.
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- Marttinen Larsson, Matti, 1992-
(författare)
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Las construcciones adverbiales del tipo “delante mío” y sus condicionantes : Patrones probabilísticos, reflejos de gramaticalización y encadenamiento analógico en variedades diacrónicas y diatópicas del español
- 2022
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The present thesis combines Labovian variationism, probabilistic grammar, and grammaticalization theory, and sets out to identify i) variable patterns underlying phenomena of morphosyntactic variation, ii) the probabilistic knowledge of grammar that speakers of Spanish possess and regulate, and iii) the conditioning factors, mechanisms and motivations that constrain morphosyntactic variation and change in Spanish diachronically and synchronically. The object of study consists in the morphosyntactic variation and change in Spanish locative adverbial constructions found at a) the level of the complement (e.g. delante de mí vs delante mío), and b) in adverbial possessives’ suffixes (e.g. delante mío vs delante mía). In order to disentangle the trajectory of grammaticalization that the tonic possessives have undergone, four quantitative independent studies are conducted. Study I compiles Twitter-data from the Spanish-speaking world and maps out what factors synchronically condition the variation between the prepositional and the possessive complements. Study II provides a diachronic probabilistic account of the same instance of variation in a European context. Study III extends this diachronic approach to involve Uruguayan Spanish. Study IV is dedicated exclusively to the morphological variation found in the possessive complements. The compilation thesis’ comprehensive summary not only introduces the respective papers, but also serves as a conceptual point of departure for a quantitatively-informed and principally theoretical discussion on the status of the studied phenomena and their relation to evolving probabilistic grammars. In linking the results from the respective studies with the introductory chapters of the thesis, it is argued that Spanish tonic possessive pronouns likely underwent reanalysis in their use with denominal adverbial locatives (e.g. al lado 'by the side', etc.). From there, they have expanded to switch contexts (e.g. cerca 'close') and lastly, in some Latin American Spanish varieties, they have conventionalized entirely and are now used within verb complements (pienso tuyo 'I think of you', habla mal mío 'he/she speaks badly of me') through analogical mechanisms. Concerning the variation found in the suffixes of the possessive pronouns (e.g. cerca mío vs. cerca mía), the dissertation identifies that the mechanism underlying the change in European Spanish appears to be an analogical snowballing effect caused by word-level analogy. In all, the dissertation draws on both quantitative and qualitative examinations and argues that the studied phenomena follow a trajectory that is predictable by theories of diffusional change in general and grammaticalization in particular. Grammaticalization firstly alters meaning through reanalysis and pragmatic inferencing, which gives rise to desemanticization and form changes at later stages. Importantly, these alterations lead to synchronous modifications in speakers’ probabilistic grammars during interaction. These small probabilistic adaptations diffuse in probabilistic community grammars and, in turn, bring about linguistic change. Taken together, the thesis not only contributes to a fuller understanding of the grammatical status of tonic possessive pronouns in Spanish world-wide, but its novel theoretical approach also contributes to advancing theories of linguistic variation and change in general.
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- Marttinen Larsson, Matti, 1992-
(författare)
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Modelling incipient probabilistic grammar change in real time : the grammaticalisation of possessive pronouns in European Spanish locative adverbial constructions
- 2023
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Ingår i: Corpus linguistics and linguistic theory. - : Walter de Gruyter GmbH. - 1613-7027 .- 1613-7035. ; 19:2, s. 177-206
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The present paper provides a methodological case study on how underlying incipient grammar change might be discerned even when frequencies of the incoming variant are apparently marginal and stable. Analysing the spread of tonic possessive pronouns in complements of locative adverbial constructions in European Spanish from a probabilistic perspective, more than 11,000 locative constructions from 1900 to 2004 were compiled, and probabilistic grammar change was operationalised as an interactive function between language-internal predictors and real time. The results reveal that numerous intralinguistic factors have been and are active in constraining the variation, with the innovation spreading significantly in spite of apparent stability in frequency. Crucially, the findings demonstrate that, even in a relatively standardised written language where the innovation has a considerably low frequency, the innovation grammaticalises along the same pathway as in colloquial vernaculars where the incoming variant is employed much more frequently.
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- Marttinen Larsson, Matti, 1992-
(författare)
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Mood swings and the concomitant developments that set the stage for change : on the diachrony of indicative/subjunctive alternation in two varieties of Spanish
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This study deals with mood variability in Spanish and addresses two oft-debated issues. Firstly, do semantic or non-semantic effects best predict mood selection? Secondly, is the Spanish subjunctive disappearing? Focusing on epistemic adverbials of doubt and probability, over 7,000 occurrences of variable mood selection in Argentinian and Mexican Spanish from between the 1850s and 2001 were analyzed using Bayesian mixed-effects logistic regression. Both semantic (epistemic adverbial, aspect, presence of modal auxiliaries, and polarity) and non-semantic (distance between the matrix and the verb, conditional probability of the verb infinitive and of the verb form, and morphological similarity) predictors were analyzed in interaction with real time and variety. The results showed that while both semantics and non-semantics constrain mood selection, the effect of semantics is more limited in terms of scope. Moreover, it is shown that subjunctive usage and productivity have increased over time. I argue that in both varieties change is attributable to concomitant developments in the system of the epistemic adverbials themselves. Importantly, the mapping out of these concomitant changes differs between the two varieties. The developments undergone by the adverbial matrices not only set the stage for change in subjunctive usage, but also bring about cross-varietal divergence in the actualization of change.
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- Marttinen Larsson, Matti, 1992-
(författare)
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Probabilistic reduction and constructionalization : a usage-based diachronic account of the diffusion and conventionalization of the Spanish la de que construction
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Annan publikation (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This paper scrutinizes the conventionalization of the Spanish expression la de que (‘the amount of that’), a reduced variant of la cantidad de que. The study seeks to determine the diachrony of and mechanisms underlying the emergence and diffusion of the la de que expression and whether it has conventionalized to develop into an independent form-function pairing. A Bayesian mixed-effects logistic regression analysis of approximately 2000 observations of diachronic corpus data tests the influence of the CONDITIONAL PROBABILITY of lexemes in the noun slot and the REGISTER, which both turn out to have a meaningful effect. It is argued that the initial omission of cantidad can be accounted for by appealing to the notion of probabilistic reduction, whereby omission is feasible in contexts involving a high degree of constructional predictability. In the mapping out of change, conventionalization of the innovative la de que is most observable in contexts involving high constructional predictability and is least prominent in contexts of low constructional predictability. On the grounds that, over time, the la de que progressively has become stylistically divergent from the longer expression, the two constructions are claimed to be functionally distinct.
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