Research Jan Nuyts

Abstract

This project represents a research contract awarded by the University of Antwerp. The supervisor provides the Antwerp University research mentioned in the title of the project under the conditions stipulated by the university.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Nuyts Jan

Research team(s)

• Grammar and Pragmatics

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

In line with current assumptions about how the grammar of a language is 'created' through history, the modal auxiliaries in English and Dutch ('can'/'kunnen', 'may'/'mogen', etc.) are known to have emerged from full lexical verbs, many centuries ago, and to have gradually acquired auxiliary (i.e. grammatical) status through a process of 'grammaticalization'. According to current views, this process is normally unidirectional (i.e., linguistic forms develop from lexical to grammatical, and from less to more grammatical, but not vice versa). Yet, in the history of both Dutch and English, there is a phase in which the evolution of the modal auxiliaries is reversed (a return to a more autonomous, lexical status, at least partially). In English this phase is situated mainly in the Middle English period, ending around 1500 (after 1500 the modals – at least the central ones – grammaticalized again further). In Dutch, however, this phase only started after 1650, in the New Dutch period, and it seems to be continuing until today. This project involves a systematic diachronic corpus investigation of these phases of re-autonomization of the modals in the histories of Dutch and English. The aim is to achieve a better view of the factors and forces which have effected and affected these processes in both languages, and to compare them, and, thus, to contribute to a better understanding of the processes of and degrammaticalization in general.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Nuyts Jan

Research team(s)

• Grammar and Pragmatics

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Human language is a profoundly variable phenomenon which is constantly being shaped and reshaped by its use in human interaction. Linguists have always been fascinated by the emergence of new, often unusual, constructions. Even more intriguing is the question of how to account for them. This project is concerned with one such remarkable construction, known as semi-insubordination. An example from Dutch is 'misschien dat hij ook komt' (literally 'maybe that he is coming too'). For the average speaker of Dutch, there is nothing odd about this utterance. Yet, upon closer scrutiny, it has the puzzling property that it contains a subordinate clause, 'dat hij ook komt' ('that he is coming too'), but no main clause. Instead, the subordinate clause is headed by an adverb only: 'misschien' ('maybe'). This kind of construction is fairly widespread in several Germanic languages (among others), but it has hardly been investigated. The aim of the present project is to analyze its grammatical and functional properties. The project will be concerned with questions like: which elements can head this construction type, and why? Why do speakers sometimes prefer it over a simple main clause such as 'misschien komt hij ook' ('maybe he is coming too')? Does this kind of construction convey the same meaning as a simple main clause alternative? The study will be based on synchronic corpus data from two languages that prominently feature this construction: Dutch and Norwegian.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Nuyts Jan
• Fellow: Beijering Karin

Research team(s)

• Grammar and Pragmatics

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Human language is a profoundly variable phenomenon which is constantly being shaped and reshaped by its use in human interaction. Linguists have always been fascinated by the emergence of new, often unusual, constructions. This project is concerned with a remarkable construction, known as semi-autonomous subordination. The aim of the present project is to analyze its grammatical and functional properties. The project will be concerned with questions like: which elements can head this construction type, and why? The study will be based on synchronic corpus data from two languages that prominently feature this construction: Dutch and Norwegian.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Nuyts Jan
• Fellow: Beijering Karin

Research team(s)

• Grammar and Pragmatics

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This project involves a diachronic (historical linguistic) study of the Dutch mental state predicates 'denken' ('think'), 'geloven' ('believe'), 'vermoeden' ('suppose') and 'vinden' ('find, consider'), on the basis of corpus data from different stages of the language since Old Dutch, in view of a number of theoretical discussions in historical and general linguistics.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Nuyts Jan

Research team(s)

• Grammar and Pragmatics

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Nuyts Jan

Research team(s)

• Grammar and Pragmatics

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Grammaticalisaton is the process through which (combinatons) of independent words develop into grammatical markers. The process 'makes' grammar. It is complex process involving phonology, morpho-syntax and semantics. It is one of the 'hot' topics in contemporary diachronic and typological linguistics.Central dimensons of the process, however, demand futher attention. In this project three dimensions will be analyzed further: - the semantic dimension: from objective to subjective and intersubjective meanings - the nature of the process: grammaticalization and analogy - the teleology of the process: is there unidirectionality?

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: van der Auwera Johan
• Co-promoter: Nuyts Jan

Research team(s)

• Grammar and Pragmatics

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The "empirical" aim is an in depth analysis of the development of meaning and form in a sample of Dutch modal expressions, from Old Dutch and Early Middle Dutch onwards. The theoretical aims of the project are: - Deepening our insights into the processes of grammaticalization and subjectification. - Deepening our insights into the sturcture of modal meanings, their mutual relations and their relations with nong-modal qualificational and non-qualificational meanings. - Deepening our insights into the functional structurof, and the form-function correlations in the system of expression types of the different modal meaning. - Drawing the implications of all these elements for the treatment of modal meanings and their expressions in a cognitive-functional language theory, and notably for the hypotheses in the functionalist literature regarding the layered representation of qualificational categories.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Nuyts Jan

Research team(s)

• Grammar and Pragmatics

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This project investigates the systems of sentence mood and of (deontic and epistemic) modality and their interrelations. There are two parallel lines of investigation: a typological one, involving a 'horizontal' analysis of these systems in 500 languages, and a language specific one, involving a 'vertical' in depth analysis of the systems in Dutch, German and English. The project aims to contribute to theory formation in cognitive-functional approaches to language.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: van der Auwera Johan
• Co-promoter: Mortelmans Tanja
• Co-promoter: Nuyts Jan

Research team(s)

• Grammar and Pragmatics

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This investigation has two components. (1) An analysis of the Dutch modal auxiliaries, in order to determine (the relations between) their syntactic and semantic properties. (2) An analysis of alternative expressions for the dynamic, deontic and epistemic uses of the modals, in order to determine their syntactic and functional properties, in contrast to those of the modals. The method of investigation is corpus analysis. The theoretical goal is to improve our understanding of how the modal auxiliaries and alternative expressions should be handled in a cognitively and functionally plausible grammar theory.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Nuyts Jan

Research team(s)

• Grammar and Pragmatics

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This project concerns the investigation of the syntax and semantics of modal expressions in language (with special attention for epistemic modality: estimations of the probability of states of affairs). It features, on the one hand, an in depth analysis of modal expressions in Dutch, German and English on the basis of corpus-analysis and experimental research, and on the other hand a typological analysis of modality in languages of the world. The theoretical aim is to establish how modality should be handled in a cognitively and typologically adequate theory of grammar.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Nuyts Jan
• Co-promoter: van der Auwera Johan

Research team(s)

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The project attempts to describe and explain the diverse expression formats of modality, across the languages of the world, and to place them in a cognitively inspired grammar.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: van der Auwera Johan
• Co-promoter: De Schutter Georges
• Co-promoter: Goossens Lodewijk J
• Co-promoter: Nuyts Jan

Research team(s)

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This project investigates, by means of an experimental methodology, the role of a number of linguistic and conceptual factors in Dutch speakers' use of a few alternative expression forms of epistemic modality (i.e. the estimation of the probability that a certain conceptual state of affairs applies in reality). This research is performed at the Max-Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Nuyts Jan

Research team(s)

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This project investigates the role of discourse structure - especially of information structure - in the choice for a certain type of expression form in the semantic domain of epistemic modality (the estimation of the chances that a certain state of affairs may be true or not) by speakers of Dutch. The experiments are performed at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Nuyts Jan
• Co-promoter: De Schutter Georges

Research team(s)

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This experiment investigates, on the basis of an experimental methodology, a number of hypotheses concerning the question how epistemic modality is expression in natural language, and what one can learn on this basis about the conceptual structure of epistemic modaltiy. The experiments are done at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Nuyts Jan

Research team(s)

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

An investigation into the relationship of linguistic and conceptual structure, with the aim to determine the organisation and operating principles of the cognetive systems of language processing. The focus lies on the linguistic and conceptual representation of modality and related operators such as negation and evidentiality.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Verschueren Jef
• Fellow: Nuyts Jan

Research team(s)

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: De Schutter Georges
• Fellow: Nuyts Jan

Research team(s)

Project type(s)

• Research Project