Diachronic typology of partitives

Abstract

Diachronic typology of partitivesThe present paper investigates diachronic developments that partitives undergo over the course of time.First, it is shown that true-partitives (part-whole-relation partitives) encoded by adpositional strategies are not stable cross-linguistically and tend to develop into pseudo-partitives, which are defined as constructions that encode simple quantification but retain the morphology of true-partitives.Secondly, the frequency bias towards indefiniteness drives the emergence of generalized partitives -partitives with no explicit realization of the subset referent.Generalized partitives tend to undergo a closer relationship with the verb.Moreover, generalized partitives may develop into markers (co-)expressing such predicate-level functions as aspectuality (the delimitative meaning) and discontinuous predicate negation, as well as hypothetical events, as well as develop into differential object markers.

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