The thesis analyses a variety of clause linkers used in the world’s languages as dedicated markers of four circumstantial relations between states of affairs: anteriority (‘after’), causality (‘because’), purpose (‘in order to’) and conditionality (‘if’). Focusing primarily on the function of the linkers rather than on their formal properties the study scrutinizes the origin and functioning of free-word adverbial subordinators, converbal endings as well as other subordinating affixes and polymorphemic structures specialized for clause-linking functions. The database consist of nearly 700 items which come from a geographically and genetically balanced sample of 84 languages. In the first part of the thesis I discuss in detail the scope of the study, theoretical foundations (functional approach to language analysis) and methodology. In the second part I focus on the issues of grammaticalization and semantic scope of the linkers. The analysis of patterns of polysemy of the linkers, as well as the make-up of the polymorphemic items among them provide material for the reconstruction of the most common sources and pathways of grammaticalization. Looking closer at the patterns of semantic polyfunctionality (i.e. other circumstantial meanings that the clause linkers convey in addition to being markers of the four analysed relations) I reveal the architecture of the network of their cognitive affinities. The result of this investigation is a set of findings, which add to our understanding of the origin and functioning of the markers – a topic which has received little attention so far. The third part of the dissertation is dedicated to the analysis of the crosslinguistic variation in the degree of grammaticalization, lexicalization and explicitness of the linkers and discussion on the motivations behind their development. The main body of the analyses is focused on the investigation of the potential influence of a variety of socio-cultural factors on the variations observed. The factors include those most often mentioned in the context of the forces shaping language structure: presence and vitality of written form as well as other media of displaced communication, presence of the language in schooling, population size of the speech community, and type of society. The results obtained show that the degrees of grammaticalization, lexicalization and explicitness are much stronger correlated with socio-cultural factors for anteriority and conditionality than for causality and purpose. In order to account for the differences I evoke the concepts of cognitive salience and communicative pressure arguing that the influence of socio-cultural factors on language structure should always be considered in a broader context which includes also pragmatics and cognitive psychology.

This study investigates combined clause constructions for ten distinct semantic relations in a cross-section of Austronesian languages. The relations are of a temporal or co-varying nature, the former commonly expressed in English by such markers as when, then, until, etc. and the latter by if, so, because, etc. The research falls into three main sections. First, the study provides an overview of the semantic domain covered by the relevant relations in the Austronesian languages. Several subdistinctions are found to be made within the relations investigated. The study also explores polysemic relation markers, and a number of patterns are identified. The most common pattern is the overlap between open conditional and non-past co-occurrence relations, for which many Austronesian languages employ the same relation marker. Second, the study develops a morpho-syntactic typology of Austronesian clause combining based on three parameters related to features common to clause combining constructions. The typology divides the constructions into five different types that are ranked with regard to structural tightness. Some additional constructions, cutting across several types, are also discussed; in particular, asymmetric coordination, which involves the use of a coordinator to connect a fronted topicalized adverbial clause to the rest of the sentence. Finally, the study explores the distributional patterns of the morpho-syntactic types across the semantic relations, as well as across three geographical areas in the Austronesian region. In the former case, a clear correlation is found between posteriority and result relations on the one hand and looser structural types on the other. The distribution of types across the Austronesian region reveals few differences between the areas, although two tendencies could be detected: the Oceanic languages tend to employ slightly looser morpho-syntax, while the Formosan and Philippine languages employ slightly tighter morpho-syntax.

Orientador: Maria Luiza Braga / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem / Made available in DSpace on 2018-07-27T19:14:12Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Rodrigues_AngelicaTerezinhaCarmo_M.pdf: 3730027 bytes, checksum: ef1d6083270ff884218582dc219c17b5 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2001 / Resumo: Neste trabalho, investigo as orações hipotáticas de tempo e condição presentes na fala de crianças em fase de aquisição de primeira língua. Na literatura consultada, há um consenso de que as orações temporais emergem na fala da criança primeiro do que as condicionais. Como sugere Slobin (1975), algumas noções, por serem mais salientes psicologicamente do que outras, são primeiramente desenvolvidas na infância. Os dados, no entanto, permitem afirmar apenas que as primeiras ocorrem em maior número do que as segundas. A justificativa, nesse caso, remete tanto a Givón quanto a Heine et alii. Tomando por base os pressupostos de Givón (1995), pode se dizer que as temporais representam estruturas não-marcadas, uma vez que são menos freqüentes. Nesse caso, é provável que tendam a ser, ao contrário das condicionais, menos complexas. Uma outra hipótese remete ao continuum de categorias cognitivas proposto por Heine et alii (1991), que defende que entidades mais concretas, como as que se referem a TEMPO, podem ser recrutadas para expressar noções mais abstratas, como CONDIÇÃO. Mostro, entre outros aspectos que, em algumas orações, é possível identificar uma superposição de significados temporais e condicionais, e que, em outras, essa possibilidade é, senão bloqueada, pelo menos, mais difícil. A correlação modo-temporal e o grau de hipoteticidade explicam, parcialmente, a intercambialidade entre noções temporais e condicionais. Para aferir o grau de integração dessas orações, utilizei as variáveis correlação modo-temporal, explicitude, correferencialidade e formas de expressão dos sujeitos. Em relação ao primeiro parâmetro, os resultados empíricos sugerem que as construções de tempo, por apresentarem tempos e modos idênticos tanto na núcleo quanto na temporal, estão mais integradas, e, portanto, mais gramaticalizadas. No que concerne aos outros parâmetros, parece haver uma inversão nos resultados. Casos de anáfora zero, que indicam um grau forte de entrelaçamento, foram registrados mais nas orações condicionais do que nas temporais. Todavia, em ambas estruturas, os sujeitos apresentaram os traços [- correferencialidade] e [+ explicitude], que indicam relações sintáticas mais frouxas / Abstract: This study investigates the hypotactic temporal and conditional clausespresent in the speech pattems of children who are in the language acquisition phase. According to the literature researched there is consensus that temporal clauses emerge in children speech patterns before conditional clauses. Like Slobin (1975) suggests, some notions, being more visible than others frem a psychological perspective, are the first to be developed in childhood. In my data, however, I verified to a certain extent that the first occur in greater number than the latter. In this case, the justification points to the hypotheses of both Givón and Heine et aloTaking Givón's pressupositions as a basis, I can say that the temporal clauses are unmarked structures, once they are less frequent. In this case, it is possible that they tend to be, contrary to condicional clauses,less complex. Another hypotheses alludes to the continuum of cognitive categories proposed by Heine et al (1991), which defends that concrete entities are recruited to express more abstract notions, such as condition. I emphasize, among other aspects, that in some sentences it is possible to identify a superposition of temporal and conditional meanings and that, in other sentences, this possibility is, if not blocked, at least less apparent. The modus-temporal correlation and hypothetical explanation ratio partially explain the interchangeability of temporal and conditional notions. In order to assess the integration degree of these sentences I used the sharing of tenses and moods, co-reference and expressions forros of subject variables. As regards the first parameter, empiric outcomes suggest that temporal constructions, because identical tenses and modes are presented in both the nucleus and the temporal clause, are more integrated and therefore characterized by more marked grammaticalization. Conceming the other parameters there seems to be an inversion of results. Cases of total absence of anaphora, which indicate a strong degree of interchange, were found more frequently in conditional than in temporal clauses. However, in both structures the subjects presented signs that indicate looser syntactic relationships [- co-reference] e [+ explicitness] / Mestrado / Mestre em Linguística