This paper investigates and surveys the role played by analogy in language learning and processin... more This paper investigates and surveys the role played by analogy in language learning and processing, and its position in models of change such as grammaticalization and diachronic construction grammar. I will illustrate the importance of analogy by looking at Hermann Paul’s Prinzipien der Sprachgeschichte (1880), indicating that his ideas on how languages are learned and change are closely connected and pervaded by analogical notions. These ideas have recently become current again, after long neglect within linguistic models since the 1950s, and now form the basis for experiments and recent work in cognitive science. The presence of analogy in change will be highlighted through a review of a number of recent diachronic studies, where I will argue that analogy helps to explain the development of the new constructions there investigated.
This paper considers a number of deterministic conceptions that occupy a central position in curr... more This paper considers a number of deterministic conceptions that occupy a central position in current thinking about the process of grammaticalization, both in formal and functional theories of grammar. After a general discussion of the way the phenomenon of grammaticalization is dealt with from the point of view of grammar change and language change, and the explanatory value of these two rather different approaches, the paper turns to an examination of determinants considered to playa role in grammaticalization, i.e. the principle of unidirectionality, the idea of conceptual chains (grammaticalization as a semantically driven process), of grammaticalization as a mechanism or cause in itself, and the so-called parameters of grammaticalization. These assumptions will be critically examined with the hclp of two case studies, i.e. the grammaticalization of the infinitival marker to and of semimodal have to in the history of English. In addition, other factors will be lookcd at of an essentially synchronic nature, which may interact in this diachronic process, such as iconic factors and the synchronic state of the grammar/language. Both of these play an important part in the way grammaticalization proceeds. The paper concludes that certain tendencies can indeed be discerned in grammaticalization, but that the process is first and foremost steered by the shape of the synchronic language system. The conclusion also offers some thoughts on how the synchronic factors that steer grammaticalization may yet set off a longterm development through the impiicational properties of the structure that is grammaticalizing.
... That involves saying what you take a grammar to be... None of us draw this distinction sharpl... more ... That involves saying what you take a grammar to be... None of us draw this distinction sharply enough but it cannot be overstressed. * I am deeply grateful to Willem Hollmann, Jet van Dam van Isselt, Niki Ritt and Victor Yngve, who have all read earlier versions of this paper and ...
Analogy (from Ancient Greek αναλογια, “reasoning from one point to another”) is a cognitive proce... more Analogy (from Ancient Greek αναλογια, “reasoning from one point to another”) is a cognitive process involving comparison whereby the information concerning one element is linked to another element through observed similarities. Analogy is related to “iconicity” (both involve parallels of form/meaning): the strong drive language users have to describe their world through signs that have some natural connection with the object the sign refers to. Analogy is concerned with (1) similarities between observable properties (material or horizontal analogy) and (2) causal similarities, i.e., the relations between a material property and a function of that property (vertical analogy). It enables language learning, is involved in language change, and helps in seeking explanations in science (including linguistics) through the spotting of parallels, e.g., the discovery of sound waves on the basis of water waves. Analogy is omnipresent in language but its working through speakers in language use...
This paper investigates and surveys the role played by analogy in language learning and processin... more This paper investigates and surveys the role played by analogy in language learning and processing, and its position in models of change such as grammaticalization and diachronic construction grammar. I will illustrate the importance of analogy by looking at Hermann Paul’s Prinzipien der Sprachgeschichte (1880), indicating that his ideas on how languages are learned and change are closely connected and pervaded by analogical notions. These ideas have recently become current again, after long neglect within linguistic models since the 1950s, and now form the basis for experiments and recent work in cognitive science. The presence of analogy in change will be highlighted through a review of a number of recent diachronic studies, where I will argue that analogy helps to explain the development of the new constructions there investigated.
This paper considers a number of deterministic conceptions that occupy a central position in curr... more This paper considers a number of deterministic conceptions that occupy a central position in current thinking about the process of grammaticalization, both in formal and functional theories of grammar. After a general discussion of the way the phenomenon of grammaticalization is dealt with from the point of view of grammar change and language change, and the explanatory value of these two rather different approaches, the paper turns to an examination of determinants considered to playa role in grammaticalization, i.e. the principle of unidirectionality, the idea of conceptual chains (grammaticalization as a semantically driven process), of grammaticalization as a mechanism or cause in itself, and the so-called parameters of grammaticalization. These assumptions will be critically examined with the hclp of two case studies, i.e. the grammaticalization of the infinitival marker to and of semimodal have to in the history of English. In addition, other factors will be lookcd at of an essentially synchronic nature, which may interact in this diachronic process, such as iconic factors and the synchronic state of the grammar/language. Both of these play an important part in the way grammaticalization proceeds. The paper concludes that certain tendencies can indeed be discerned in grammaticalization, but that the process is first and foremost steered by the shape of the synchronic language system. The conclusion also offers some thoughts on how the synchronic factors that steer grammaticalization may yet set off a longterm development through the impiicational properties of the structure that is grammaticalizing.
... That involves saying what you take a grammar to be... None of us draw this distinction sharpl... more ... That involves saying what you take a grammar to be... None of us draw this distinction sharply enough but it cannot be overstressed. * I am deeply grateful to Willem Hollmann, Jet van Dam van Isselt, Niki Ritt and Victor Yngve, who have all read earlier versions of this paper and ...
Analogy (from Ancient Greek αναλογια, “reasoning from one point to another”) is a cognitive proce... more Analogy (from Ancient Greek αναλογια, “reasoning from one point to another”) is a cognitive process involving comparison whereby the information concerning one element is linked to another element through observed similarities. Analogy is related to “iconicity” (both involve parallels of form/meaning): the strong drive language users have to describe their world through signs that have some natural connection with the object the sign refers to. Analogy is concerned with (1) similarities between observable properties (material or horizontal analogy) and (2) causal similarities, i.e., the relations between a material property and a function of that property (vertical analogy). It enables language learning, is involved in language change, and helps in seeking explanations in science (including linguistics) through the spotting of parallels, e.g., the discovery of sound waves on the basis of water waves. Analogy is omnipresent in language but its working through speakers in language use...
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Papers by Olga Fischer