Animacy, anaphora and language change in Swedish

This paper considers the role of animacy in the overt marking of indirect anaphors, i.e., noun phrases (NP), which introduce new discourse referents, that are grounded in the preceding discourse by means of a grounding element, an anchor. The indirect anaphors are considered in a diachronic persp...

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Main Author: Skrzypek, Dominika
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2021
Online Access:http://journalarticle.ukm.my/18119/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/18119/1/45456-164849-1-PB.pdf
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author Skrzypek, Dominika
author_facet Skrzypek, Dominika
author_sort Skrzypek, Dominika
building UKM Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description This paper considers the role of animacy in the overt marking of indirect anaphors, i.e., noun phrases (NP), which introduce new discourse referents, that are grounded in the preceding discourse by means of a grounding element, an anchor. The indirect anaphors are considered in a diachronic perspective with reference to the emergent definite article and the variation between the article and other marking elements, in particular possessive pronouns. The study is based on an annotated corpus of Swedish prosaic texts from 1200–1550, which is a period of time when the definite article undergoes the process of grammaticalization in this language. The material was sorted according to the different combinations of the animacy of the anchor and the anaphor. The indirect anaphors which are anchored by means of expressions referring to animate entities show more variation of expression than those expressions referring to inanimate entities at the onset of definite article grammaticalization, but as the grammaticalization progresses, all indirect anaphors are by default expressed by the definite article. This is connected with the ongoing grammaticalization of the definite article and its extended use in new contexts.
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spelling oai:generic.eprints.org:181192022-02-24T00:27:46Z http://journalarticle.ukm.my/18119/ Animacy, anaphora and language change in Swedish Skrzypek, Dominika This paper considers the role of animacy in the overt marking of indirect anaphors, i.e., noun phrases (NP), which introduce new discourse referents, that are grounded in the preceding discourse by means of a grounding element, an anchor. The indirect anaphors are considered in a diachronic perspective with reference to the emergent definite article and the variation between the article and other marking elements, in particular possessive pronouns. The study is based on an annotated corpus of Swedish prosaic texts from 1200–1550, which is a period of time when the definite article undergoes the process of grammaticalization in this language. The material was sorted according to the different combinations of the animacy of the anchor and the anaphor. The indirect anaphors which are anchored by means of expressions referring to animate entities show more variation of expression than those expressions referring to inanimate entities at the onset of definite article grammaticalization, but as the grammaticalization progresses, all indirect anaphors are by default expressed by the definite article. This is connected with the ongoing grammaticalization of the definite article and its extended use in new contexts. Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2021-08 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://journalarticle.ukm.my/18119/1/45456-164849-1-PB.pdf Skrzypek, Dominika (2021) Animacy, anaphora and language change in Swedish. GEMA ; Online Journal of Language Studies, 21 (3). pp. 1-15. ISSN 1675-8021 https://ejournal.ukm.my/gema/issue/view/1417
spellingShingle Skrzypek, Dominika
Animacy, anaphora and language change in Swedish
title Animacy, anaphora and language change in Swedish
title_full Animacy, anaphora and language change in Swedish
title_fullStr Animacy, anaphora and language change in Swedish
title_full_unstemmed Animacy, anaphora and language change in Swedish
title_short Animacy, anaphora and language change in Swedish
title_sort animacy, anaphora and language change in swedish
url http://journalarticle.ukm.my/18119/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/18119/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/18119/1/45456-164849-1-PB.pdf