Selected Papers from the Fourteenth International ... - STIBA Malang

Particles as grammaticalized complex predicates 159
(3) a. break/blow/blast/cut/fling/push/rake/whisk open, cut/stop short, bleach
white, blow/keep/make/sift clear, put straight, let/set free, think fit, cast/let/
pry/shake/wrestle loose, strip naked etc.
b. bring to light, put in execution, take in hand, call to mind, call in question,
take into consideration etc.
(4) carry aloft (< on loft), set alight (< on light), take apart (< on part), put awry
(< on wry), carry around (< on round), keep asunder (< on sunder), set afoot
(< on foot), etc.
The arguments advanced against identifying particles as grammaticalized predicates
focus on the failure of many particles (most notoriously up) to function as independent
predicates (He phoned me up versus *I am up), the lack of telicity in many cases
(though telicity would be expected if particles were grammaticalized predicates,
which are as a rule resultative), and the failure of constituency tests and topicalization.
I will argue in this chapter that these same quirks are exhibited by predicates.
Resultative complex predicates show various degrees of productivity, transparency
and idiosyncrasy which mirror those of particle verbs, and easily acquire idiomatic
meanings that only work in combination with specific verbs: cf. drink NP under the
table versus *he is under the table (Goldberg & Jackendoff 2004).
If the similarity in behaviour of predicates and particles can be taken as a
pointer to a shared diachronic origin, it is all the more interesting that clear signs
of this affinity between the two do not emerge until EModE. The affinity can be
traced into OE, but then only with prefixes, which were still productive in that
stage of the language, and not with particles.
2. Particles and predicates
2.1 Origin of particles
Bolinger (1971: 18) provides this list of particles:
(5) aback, about, above, across, after, again, aground, ahead, along, alongside, aloud,
apart, around, aside, askew, astray, astride, atop, asunder, athwart, away, back,
before, behind, below, between, by, down, forth, forward, home, in, off, on, out,
over, past, round, through, to, together, under, underground, underneath, up.
The great majority represent grammaticalized (or better, lexicalized) prepositional
phrases. 1 Underground is a clear example, but there are many others: away
from onweg, down from adown > ofdune. Others are homophonous with PE
1. For a discussion of the relationship between grammaticalization and lexicalization, see e.g.,
Brinton (2002).