Nederlandse Taalkunde - Volume 15, Issue 3, 2010

Dutch language users can use connective patterns to express backward causal relations. Sub-omdat patterns (omdat, ‘because1’, followed by a subordinated clause) and co-want patterns (want, ‘because2/since/for’, followed by a coordinated clause) can be used in both spoken and written Dutch. However, only in spoken Dutch, a third pattern might be used: the co-omdat pattern. A possible parallel phenomenon occurs in G Read More

Most current views on grammaticalisation consider reanalysis to be the basic mechanism underlying grammaticalisation. A comparison of subject doubling data from West Germanic and Romance varieties shows that this view faces problems. The grammaticalisation of pronouns into clitics and agreement markers is less likely to proceed into the final stages in West Germanic than in Romance dialects. This difference can be relat Read More