OJSL Home

2020 - Volume 3 - Number 1

Semantic Shifts Within Infinitive Constructions in English

Tatiana Sallier * tatiana _sallier@mail.ru * ORCID: 0000-0002-2637-8867
St. Petersburg State University, Faculty of Philology, RUSSIAN FEDERATION

Open Journal for Studies in Linguistics, 2020, 3 (1), 29-36 * https://doi.org/10.32591/coas.ojsl.0301.03029s
Received: 27 May 2020 ▪ Accepted: 15 July 2020 ▪ Published Online: 6 August 2020

LICENCE: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

ARTICLE (Full Text - PDF)

ABSTRACT:
The purpose of the article is to trace the semantic evolution of predicates governing the infinitive. The article is aimed at proving that the lexical units governing the infinitive display a semantic shift from more concrete lexical meaning to more abstract modal meaning. The research is conducted on the basis of the theory of context. It is proved that the infinitive is an element of syntactic context reinforcing the modal seme in the meaning of the governing predicate. As the modal seme within the meaning of the predicate is reinforced regularly and the lexical seme only occasionally, the lexical seme is weakened and gradually disappears, the predicate acquiring purely modal meaning. Lexemes having no modal meaning outside the infinitive phrase acquire it when governing the infinitive, which imposes modality upon the governing predicate. The general semantic shift for this type of construction is from concrete lexical to abstract modal, and the modal seme being stronger in these contextual conditions.

KEY WORDS: infinitive construction, grammaticalization, semantic evolution, contextual reinforcement, systemic trend.

CORRESPONDING AUTHOR:
Tatiana Sallier, St. Petersburg State University, Faculty of Philology, 199397,Beringa street 27-2-20 St. Petersburg, RUSSIAN FEDERATION. E-mail: tatiana_sallier@mail.ru.

REFERENCES:

Amosova, N. (1968). English contextology. Leningrad.

Blake, N. (1971). Malice with murder. London. (N. B.M.M.)

Cambridge advanced learner’s dictionary (2005). Cambridge University Press.

Christie, A. (1974). Nemesis. Fontana book. (A.Ch.N.)

French Larousse dictionary. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=pack.LarDicoFR

Gerson, N. (1964). Jefferson square. New York.

Greenwood, R. (1941). Mr. Bunting at war. London. (R.Gr.)

Hailey, A. (1970). Hotel New York. London. (A.H.)

Heine, B., & Traugott, E. (1991). Introduction. In Approaches to grammaticalization: Typological studies in language. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.

Ilyish, B. (1973). History of the English language. Leningrad.

Kind-Kovács, F., & Labov, J. (Eds.) (2013). Samizdat, tamizdat, and beyond: Transnational media during and after socialism. London.

Macmillan English Dictionary for advanced learners (2002). International Student Edition.

Seton, A. (1975). Katherine. London: Coronet books. (A.S.K.)

Seton, A. (1978). Dragonwick. London: Coronet books. (A.S.Dr.)

Shaw, I. (2010). Nightwork. St.Petersburg. (I.Sh.N.)

Shute, N. (1950). The legacy. New York. (N.Sh.L.)0

Traugott, E. (1989). On the rise of epistemic meanings in English. Language 65, March 1989, pp.31-35.

Traugott, E. (2017). Semantic change. Online Publication Date:  March 2017. https://doi.org/10.1093 /acrefore/9780199384655.013.323

Žurnal Ministerstva Narodnago Prosveščenija (1878). Vol. 116. (Z.M.N.P.)