Jessi Elana Aaron, Rena Torres Cacoullos
Quantitative measures of subjectification: A variationist study of Spanish salir(se)
By confronting variable use, the variationist method can reveal patterns of
subjectification of grammatical morphemes. Applying this method to the analysis
of salir(se)? ‘go out’ variation in Mexican Spanish oral data, we
conclude that subjectification is manifested structurally in the tendency for
middle-marked salirse? to co-occur with first-person singular or
referents close to the speaker, positive polarity and the past tense. Further
comparative dialectal and diachronic data indicate the origins of the
se?-marked form in physical spatial deviation. Usage of
the form then extends to situations that denote deviation from social norms. We
thus propose that the locus of subjectification of this counter-expectation
marker is an increasingly speaker-based construal of expectation. This semantic
change appears to proceed via absorption of contextual meaning in the frequently
occurring + de?
‘from’ construction.
Cognitive Linguistics, Walter de Gruyter
Print ISSN: 0936-5907
Volume: 16, 12/2005
Pages: 607 - 633
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