An endangered marker. On the loss of Swedish att after kommer and some parallels in English

• The Swedish infinitive marker "att" is disappearing after "kommer", the major construction for indicating future time. "Kommer" is originally a main verb, but the loss of the infinitive marker of the second verb in the phrase gives it the chief characteristic of an auxiliary, which makes the proecess one of grammaticalization. Based on a survey among Swedish students it is shown that both the age of speakers/writers and the syntax of the sentence in question are crucial factors for the choice between "att" and omission.

Subject headings

HUMANIORA  -- Språk och litteratur -- Studier av enskilda språk (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Languages and Literature -- Specific Languages (hsv//eng)

Keyword

grammaticalization

auxiliary

syntax

sociolinguistics

Publication and Content Type

vet (subject category)

art (subject category)