The Present of the English Future: Grammatical Variation and Collocations in Discourse

We use the variationist method to elucidate the expression of future time in English, examining multiple grammaticalization in the same domain (will and going to). Usage patterns show that the choice of form is not determined by invariant semantic readings such as proximity, certainty, willingness, or intention. Rather, particular instances of each general construction occupy lexical, syntactic, and pragmatic niches. While putative differences in meaning are largely neutralized in discourse, grammaticalization paths are reflected in particular constructions of different degrees of lexical specificity, which bear different nuances of meaning or tenacious patterns of distribution inherited from once-meaningful associations. We conclude that collocations contribute to the shape of grammatical variation.

[1]  F. R. Palmer,et al.  A linguistic study of the English verb , 1968 .

[2]  Scott A. Schwenter,et al.  Towards an Operational Notion of Subjectification , 2005 .

[3]  F. Palmer.  The English Verb , 1974 .

[4]  Jenny Cheshire.  Syntactic variation and spoken language , 2005 .

[5]  Javier Gutiérrez-Rexach.  Review of “Grammaticization, Synchronic Variation, and Language Contact. A Study of Spanish Progressive -ndo Constructions” by Rena Torres Cacoullos , 2003 .

[6]  Sali A. Tagliamonte,et al.  African American English in the diaspora , 2001 .

[7]  B. Joseph,et al.  Historical Linguistics , 1999 .

[8]  William Labov,et al.  A Study of the Non-Standard English of Negro and Puerto Rican Speakers in New York City. Volume I: Phonological and Grammatical Analysis. , 1968 .

[9]  K. Rice.  Principles of Linguistic Change (Volume 2): Social Factors: William Labov , 2002 .

[10]  Bonnie McElhinny,et al.  Copula and auxiliary contraction in the speech of White Americans , 1993 .

[11]  Herman Wekker,et al.  The expression of future time in contemporary British English: an investigation into the syntax and semantics of five verbal constructions expressing futurity , 1976 .

[13]  福元 広二,et al.  書評 Manfred G. Krug: Emerging English Modals: A Corpus-Based Study of Grammaticalization(Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter, 2000) , 2002 .

[14]  Joan L. Bybee,et al.  Frequency and the emergence of linguistic structure , 2001 .

[15]  James A. Walker.  There's bears back there : Plural existentials and vernacular universals in (Quebec) English , 2007 .

[16]  Ray Jackendoff,et al.  The Architecture of the Language Faculty , 1996 .

[17]  J. Myhill.  Typological discourse analysis , 1992 .

[18]  Brian Butterworth,et al.  Explanations for Language Universals , 1984 .

[19]  Donald Winford,et al.  On the origins of African American vernacular English : A creolist perspective. Part II : Linguistic features , 1998 .

[20]  Richard B. Dasher,et al.  Regularity in Semantic Change , 2002 .

[21]  Simeon Potter,et al.  An Historical Syntax of the English Language. Part One: Syntactical Units with One Verb , 1965 .

[22]  Ylva Berglund,et al.  Future in Present-day English: corpus-based evidence on the rivalry of expressions , 1997 .

[23]  Winfred P. Lehmann,et al.  Directions for Historical Linguistics: A Symposium , 1968 .

[24]  崔圭鉢,et al.  把字句와 주관화(Subjectification) , 2006 .

[25]  W. Labov.  Principles Of Linguistic Change , 1994 .

[26]  Sali A. Tagliamonte.  Analysing Sociolinguistic Variation , 2006 .

[27]  Catherine E. Travis.  Genre effects on subject expression in Spanish: Priming in narrative and conversation , 2007, Language Variation and Change.

[28]  Terrell A. Morgan,et al.  THEORETICAL ANALYSES IN ROMANCE LINGUISTICS , 1992 .

[29]  S. Ervin-Tripp.  Is Sybil there? the structure of some American English directives , 1976, Language in Society.

[30]  James A. Walker.  Using the past to explain the present: Tense and temporal reference in Early African American English , 2001, Language Variation and Change.

[31]  Leonie Cornips,et al.  Syntax and variation : reconciling the biological and the social , 2005 .

[32]  Martin Haspelmath,et al.  Approaches to grammaticalization , 1992 .

[33]  Elena Lieven,et al.  Crosslinguistic Approaches to the Psychology of Language: Research in the Tradition of Dan Isaac Slobin , 2009 .

[34]  Frederick J. Newmeyer,et al.  Linguistics: The Cambridge Survey: Index of names , 1988 .

[35]  F. Palmer.  Modality and the English modals , 1979 .

[36]  Brian D. Joseph,et al.  Morphology and Universals in Syntactic Change: Evidence from Medieval and Modern Greek , 1990 .

[37]  Brian D. Joseph,et al.  Syntax versus the lexicon: incorporation and compounding in Modern Greek , 1998, Journal of Linguistics.

[38]  Sali A. Tagliamonte.  ''So cool, right?'': Canadian English Entering the 21st Century , 2006 .

[39]  F. Brisard.  Be going to: an exercise in grounding , 2001, Journal of Linguistics.

[40]  D. Bolinger.  Meaning and form , 1979 .

[41]  J. M. Peirce.  Aspect , 1871, Nature.

[42]  Joan L. Bybee,et al.  The Evolution of Grammar: Tense, Aspect, and Modality in the Languages of the World , 1994 .

[43]  T. Givón,et al.  On Understanding Grammar , 1979 .

[44]  Sali A. Tagliamonte.  Obsolescence in the English perfect ? Evidence from Samana English , 1997 .

[45]  Susan Wright,et al.  Subjectivity and subjectivisation : linguistic perspectives , 1995 .

[46]  D. Bolinger.  Meaning and Memory , 1979 .

[47]  S. Fleischman.  The Future in Thought and Language: Diachronic Evidence from Romance , 1982 .

[48]  Panayiotis A. Pappas.  The microcosm of a morphological change: Variation in , 2001 .

[49]  S. Thompson.  “Object complements” and conversation towards a realistic account , 2002 .

[50]  Joseph S. Nye.  Peering into the Future , 1994 .

[51]  C. C. Fries.  THE EXPRESSION OF THE FUTURE , 1927 .

[52]  Shana Poplack,et al.  Rewriting the past: Bare verbs in the Ottawa Repository of Early African American Correspondence , 2003 .

[53]  William Labov.  Quantitative Reasoning in Linguistics , 2008 .

[54]  M. Krug.  Emerging English modals : a corpus-based study of grammaticalization , 2000 .

[55]  Ylva Berglund.  Expressions of Future in Present-day English: A Corpus-based Approach , 2005 .

[56]  Brian D. Joseph,et al.  The handbook of historical linguistics , 2003 .

[57]  Mark Aronoff,et al.  The Handbook of Linguistics , 2001 .

[58]  L. Haegeman.  Be going to and will: a pragmatic account , 1989, Journal of Linguistics.

[59]  Talmy Givón,et al.  Negation in Language: Pragmatics, Function, Ontology , 1978 .

[60]  Anna Giacalone Ramat,et al.  Papers from the 7th International Conference on Historical Linguistics , 1987 .

[61]  F. R. Palmer,et al.  Future time reference in the conditional protasis: A comment on comrie , 1983 .

[62]  Penelope Brown,et al.  The origins of syntax in discourse: A case study of Tok Pisin relatives [reprint of 1976 article in Language] , 1976 .

[63]  J. Helm,et al.  Essays on the verbal and visual arts , 1968 .

[64]  J. Bosworth,et al.  An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary , 1882 .

[65]  W. Labov.  Contraction, Deletion, and Inherent Variability of the English Copula. , 1969 .

[66]  Joel Sherzer,et al.  Language in Use: Readings in Sociolinguistics , 1985 .

[67]  D. Slobin.  The Crosslinguistic Study of Language Acquisition , 1987 .

[68]  Sandra A. Thompson,et al.  A Discourse Explanation of the Grammar of Relative Clauses in English Conversation. , 1990 .

[69]  Ö. Dahl,et al.  Tense and aspect in the languages of Europe , 2000 .

[70]  Shana Poplack,et al.  An English “like no other”?: Language Contact and Change in Quebec , 2006, Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique.

[71]  John C. Paolillo.  Analyzing Linguistic Variation: Statistical Models and Methods , 2001 .

[72]  Carlota S. Smith,et al.  The Parameter of Aspect , 1991 .

[73]  Michael Noonan,et al.  Complex sentences in grammar and discourse : essays in honor of Sandra A. Thompson , 2002 .

[74]  Rena Torres Cacoullos,et al.  On the persistence of grammar in discourse formulas: a variationist study of that , 2009 .

[75]  J. Arroyo.  The variable expression of future tense in Peninsular Spanish: The present (and future) of inflectional forms in the Spanish spoken in a bilingual region , 2008, Language Variation and Change.

[76]  W. Labov,et al.  Empirical foundations for a theory of language change , 2014 .

[77]  Östen Dahl,et al.  Tense and aspect systems , 1985 .

[78]  Emmon W. Bach,et al.  Universals in Linguistic Theory , 1970 .

[79]  Julian M. Pine,et al.  Constructing a Language: A Usage-Based Theory of Language Acquisition. , 2004 .

[80]  E. Traugott.  Constructions in Grammaticalization , 2008 .

[81]  M. Krug,et al.  Frequency, iconicity, categorization: Evidence from emerging modals , 2001 .

[82]  Frank Brisard,et al.  The English Tense-System as an Epistemic Category , 1997 .

[83]  Richard Cameron,et al.  Ambiguous agreement, functional compensation, and nonspecific tú in the Spanish of San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Madrid, Spain , 1993, Language Variation and Change.

[84]  Shana Poplack,et al.  The inherent variability of the French Subjunctive , 1991 .

[85]  Shana Poplack,et al.  Does the Futur have a future in (Canadian) French? , 1999 .

[86]  Joan L. Bybee,et al.  The role of prefabs in grammaticization: How the particular and the general interact in language change , 2009 .

[87]  Joan L. Bybee,et al.  From Usage to Grammar: The Mind's Response to Repetition , 2007 .

[88]  E. Traugott.  On the Rise of Epistemic Meanings in English: An Example of Subjectification in Semantic Change , 1989 .

[89]  Elizabeth Closs Traugott,et al.  Approaches to Grammaticalization: Volume II. Types of grammatical markers , 1991 .

[90]  S. Tagliamonte,et al.  LINGUISTIC RUIN? LOL! INSTANT MESSAGING AND TEEN LANGUAGE , 2008 .

[91]  W. Bruce Croft,et al.  The origins of grammaticalization in the verbalization of experience , 2010 .

[92]  Ray Jackendoff,et al.  Semantic Interpretation in Generative Grammar , 1972 .

[93]  John Martin Myhill.  Typological discourse analysis : quantitative approaches to the study of linguistic function , 1992 .

[94]  Ö. Dahl,et al.  Temporal distance: remoteness distinctions in tense-aspect systems , 1983 .

[95]  F. Newmeyer.  Language Form And Language Function , 1998 .

[96]  Adele E. Goldberg,et al.  Constructions at Work , 2005 .

[97]  B. Erman,et al.  The idiom principle and the open choice principle , 2000 .

[98]  Variation and grammaticisation: The emergence of an aspectual opposition , 2009 .

[99]  M. Sedano.  El futuro morfológico y la expresión ir a + infinitivo en el español hablado de Venezuela , 1994 .

[100]  S. Thompson,et al.  A quantitative perspective on the gramaticization of epistemic parentheticals in English , 1991 .

[101]  Lyle Campbell.  What’s wrong with grammaticalization? , 2000 .

[102]  A. Klinge.  The English modal auxiliaries: from lexical semantics to utterance interpretation , 1993, Journal of Linguistics.

[103]  William Labov,et al.  Field methods of the Project on Linguistic Change and Variation , 1981 .

[104]  Jeffrey S. Gruber,et al.  Lexical structures in syntax and semantics , 1976 .

[105]  Bernard Comrie,et al.  Future time reference in the conditional protasis , 1982 .

[106]  Iskender Savasir,et al.  On the use of will and gonna: Toward a description of activity‐types for child language∗ , 1985 .

[107]  Dieter Kastovsky.  Studies in early modern English , 1994 .

[108]  J. Chambers,et al.  The handbook of language variation and change , 2003 .

[109]  M. Joos,et al.  The English Verb: Form and Meanings , 1965 .

[110]  Roderick M. Chisholm.  Tense , 1981, Tense and Performance.

[111]  A. Goldberg.  Constructions at Work: The Nature of Generalization in Language , 2006 .

[112]  Benedikt Szmrecsanyi.  Be Going to Versus Will/Shall , 2003 .

[113]  J. Kuryłowicz.  La nature des procs dits Analogiques , 1945 .

[114]  Joan L. Bybee.  4. Sequentiality as the basis of constituent structure , 2002 .

[115]  C. Corvalán,et al.  Notas sobre la expresión de futuridad en el español del Caribe , 1991 .

[116]  R. Langacker.  Foundations of cognitive grammar , 1983 .

[117]  Shana Poplack,et al.  Elucidating the transition period in linguistic change: The expression of the future in Brazilian Portuguese , 2007 .

[118]  Suzanne Fleischman,et al.  Temporal Distance: A Basic Linguistic Metaphor , 1989 .

[119]  Merja Kytö,et al.  The construction be going to + infinitive in Early Modern English , 1994 .

[120]  W. Labov,et al.  Narrative analysis: Oral versions of personal experience. , 1997 .

[121]  S. Thompson,et al.  Transitivity in Grammar and Discourse , 1980 .

[122]  K. Aaron Smith,et al.  Grammaticalization , 2011, Lang. Linguistics Compass.

[123]  Rena Torres Cacoullos,et al.  Variation and Grammaticalization , 2011 .

[124]  Jessi Elana Aaron.  Variation and change in Spanish future temporal expression : rates, constraints, and grammaticization , 2007 .

[125]  Östen Dahl.  Future marking in conditional and temporal clauses in Greek , 2000 .

[126]  Bernd Heine,et al.  World Lexicon of Grammaticalization , 2019 .

[127]  Otto Jespersen,et al.  The Philosophy of Grammar , 1924 .

[128]  David Sankoff,et al.  Linguistics: The Cambridge Survey: Sociolinguistics and syntactic variation , 1988 .

[129]  Dan I. Slobin,et al.  The origins of grammaticizable notions: beyond the individual mind , 2014 .

[130]  Rena Torres Cacoullos,et al.  Grammaticization, synchronic variation, and language contact , 2000 .

[131]  Joan L. Bybee,et al.  Main clauses are innovative, subordinate clauses are conservative , 2002 .

[132]  Alice F. Freed.  The form and function of questions in informal dyadic conversation , 1994 .

[133]  Les tendances dynamiques du français parlé à Montréal , 1985 .

[134]  Ronald W. Langacker,et al.  Concept, Image, and Symbol , 1990 .

[135]  Joan L. Bybee,et al.  The evolution of future meaning , 1987 .

[136]  Arie Verhagen.  Subjectification, syntax, and communication. , 1995 .

[137]  Geoffrey Leech,et al.  Meaning and the English Verb , 1971 .

[138]  Sali A. Tagliamonte,et al.  The grammaticization of going to in (African American) English , 1999, Language Variation and Change.

[139]  Rena Torres Cacoullos,et al.  From lexical to grammatical to social meaning , 2001, Language in Society.

[140]  J. Bosworth,et al.  An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary: Based on the Manuscript Collections of Joseph Bosworth Supplement , 1972 .