The evolution of constructions: The case of be about to

I examine the evolution of constructions involved in the emergence of be about to, used to indicate an immediate future event. Using three corpora from different time periods going as far back as the Old English period, I take synchronic snapshots of the gradual change in constructions leading up to the present day usage of be about to. The selected corpora parallel Disney's (2009) account of the grammaticalization of be going to for the purpose of comparison. It is found that the emergence of be about to is a complex story involving the development of multiple constructions through time. These findings demonstrate the value of examining language change in a construction grammar framework. While it is helpful to understand that constructions, not just words, undergo grammaticalization, one should also recognize that the emergence of a new construction always involves an interaction between several different constructions. Consequently, determining where the grammaticalization process begins is a complicated endeavor that requires thorough examination the complexities of the older constructions from which a new construction emerges.

Name thesis:degree_name

Linguistics

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Department of Linguistics

Year

2013

Author dc:creator

• Mee, Joshua

Contributors dc:contributor

• Croft, William
• Bybee, Joan
• Shin, Naomi

• Construction grammar
• Grammaticalization
• Idiomatization
• Schematization

Language dc:language

English

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/ling_etds/25

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalrepository.unm.edu:ling_etds-1024