The emergence of functions through metonymy and language contact

A function can emerge through a metonymical extension from one function to another. A function may have several properties or features. These are mainly logical implications of a given function. Each of these features may serve as a source for the emergence of new function. The metonymical extension may be coded by the same formal means as the function from which it emerged, or new formal means may be recruited to code the new function. The Chapter describes the emergence of functions coding the relationships between propositions. The initial state described here consists of the juxtaposition of two clauses without any conjunction in Lele. Out of this initial state four functions have emerged: a backgrounding function whereby one proposition constitutes a background for another; a sequential temporal relationship between the two propositions; the unexpected relationship between two propositions, and the most recent function that of coding counter-expectations.

The emergence of grammatical relations

The domain examined in Chapter 13 can be broadly described as the domain of relationships between the predicate and noun phrases. The Chapter addresses a narrow but an important issue, viz. the emergence of a binary distinction between the grammatical relations subject and object. Unlike various theoretical approaches, generative and functional alike that take the dichotomy of subject and object to be basic components of clausal structure, the study demonstrates that in some languages this dichotomy is a product of functional changes that start from an initial state with undifferentiated relations, in which there is no distinction between the subject and object. In other languages the distinction between the subject and object is a product of the reduction of a rich system of coding semantic relations between the predicate and noun phrases.

The emergence of the point-of-view of the subject

Chapter 6 defines semantic properties of the point of view of the subject, illustrating the issue on languages familiar to many readers. The category point of view of the subject instructs the listener to consider how the event concerns the subject. This semantic function does not depend on the number and type of arguments with which the verb occurs or on the type of the event described. The chapter demonstrates how the point of view of the subject emerged from the initial state that either coded goal orientation or allowed the proposition to be interpreted as having a goal. The category point of view of the subject can be encoded regardless of whether the subject has control over the event. In German, Italian, Spanish, French, the point of view of the subject is marked by forms referred to as ‘reflexive’, and in Russian, Polish by the so-called short reflexive markers.

Methodology

A prerequisite for the discovery of functions is the determination of formal means of coding within the language. The discovery of functions and motivations for the emergence of functions is based on the claim that each function is a member of some functional domain. A determining characteristic of a function is its contrast with other functions within the domain. The chapter postulates that a distinction should be made between structural functions that allow the listener to identify the types of constituents in the clause and functions encoding meaning. The chapter illustrates the discovery of the functions of the following: the ‘progressive’ and the ‘perfect’ forms in English; ‘reflexives’ in some Indo-European languages; point of view of the subject; and goal orientation in several languages; pronouns in several languages.

The principle of functional transparency as a motivation for the emergence of functions

The principle of functional transparency has two components: The first component states that the role of every constituent in the utterance must be transparent to the listener. The role of the constituents in the utterance is quite distinct from the role of the referents of the constituents in extralinguistic reality. The second component states that if a function is encoded in the grammatical system and the scope of the situation described includes the function, this function must be coded in the utterance. The Chapter demonstrates the role of the principle of functional transparency in the emergence of a functions. The discussion also includes a consideration of language contact. It is demonstrated that the same function might have emerged through language internal motivation and through language contact. The specific function whose emergence is described is the codding of an additional argument in the proposition.

Forced interpretation

The main aim of Chapter 3 is to describe forced interpretation as a motivation for the emergence of functions. A language may encode in its grammatical structure formal means to ensure that the listener infer the meaning desired by the speaker and only the meaning desired by the speaker. The importance of this motivation for the emergence of functions is that most likely it is present in many functional domains. The second aim of the Chapter is to demonstrate that as a result of the postulated motivation, an identical function can emerge independently in the grammatical systems of related and unrelated languages. Moreover, languages can independently come to use the same type of formal means to code identical functions. The Chapter demonstrates that several languages have encoded in their grammatical systems a ‘comment clause’ that forces the listener to interpret the clause with a preceding clause or with some situation. Unrelated languages, independently, came to use similar means to code the comment clause.

Systemic ambiguity as a motivation in the emergence of logophoricity

Chapter 4 demonstrates that a systematic ambiguity within a domain may constitute a motivation in the emergence of a function. The functional domain discussed is the domain of reference. The systematic ambiguity at play is the coding of reference in clausal complements of verbs of saying. More specifically, the question is whether the participants in the complement clause are coreferential with the participant in the matrix clause or whether they are not coreferential. Some languages deploy pronouns in the complement clause to code disjoint reference and person, number, and gender agreement on the verb to code coreference (Polish). Other languages deploy pronouns in the complement clause to code coreference and nouns to code disjoint reference (English). The specific solution described in Chapter 4 are logophoric pronouns which code not only coreference with the subject of the matrix clause but also coreference with other arguments of the matrix clause. The Chapter describes how logophoric coding emerged from the de dicto reference markers.

The emergence of complex action as an outcome of the availability of coding means

Studies of Australian and Amazonian languages have demonstrated the existence of an associated motion function. Chapter 11 demonstrates that associated motion is just one of the possible outcomes of the emergence of new functions. The associated action may involve activities other than motion. This associated activity is called here ‘compositional action’. This function emerged as a result of the presence of the rich system of verbal inflectional markers coding directionality and spatial orientation in the languages considered. The importance of this chapter is that it demonstrates that a rich inflectional coding on a lexical category - in this case the verb - allows for the emergence of a new type of function and not merely provides a new locus of coding. The implications of this conclusion, which supports previous studies of Australian, Amazonian, and Slavic languages, is that it calls for a new typology of functions.

The emergence of a functional domain through language contact

Some effects of languages contact on the emergence of functions have been described in the previous literature. The emergence of a functional domain and not merely a function has not been described so far. The chapter first proposes a methodology for the study of emergence of functions through language contact. It then demonstrates that the functional domain can emerge through incorporation of the method of coding functions from other languages. The domain in question is that of coding a type of tense distinctions whereby each marker associates the time of the event with a specific time or a specific event previously mentioned in discourse. This type of tense system is radically different from the tense systems as known in Indo-European languages.

The emergence of gender and number coding in content questions

A function can emerge as a result of there already being a formal means of coding in the language, and this formal means has either no function attached to it or has a function in a domain X and is available to code a function in the domain Y. The chapter addresses opportunistic emergence of coding gender and number of participants in de dicto and de re questions. The importance of opportunistic emergence of a function is that the functions so emerging provide the evidence that (a) the communicative need is not a necessary motivation for the emergence of a function; (b) the presence of such function is the evidence that meaning may emerge out of the formal means available in the language rather than the formal means are created to code the meaning.