Abstract
Exaptation is a process of linguistic change where obsolescent morphology is refunctionalized. In this article it is argued that exaptation is not a rare, one-off process, as is often assumed, but may come in successive waves, both in biological evolution, where the term originated, and in cultural evolution, including linguistics. Such iterated exaptations may result in complex ‘layering’, to use a term familiar from grammaticalization studies. Two case studies on central aspects of Proto-Indo-European morphology are looked at in depth, showing how they underwent iterated exaptation in Germanic, namely the nominal stem-building -n- affix and the ŏ-grade of the verbal ablaut system. On the theoretical side, it is argued that exaptation is the consequence of word-based morphology that gives central stage to output configurations, a basic tenet of Construction Morphology.
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Notes
- 1.
Wischer (2010: 33–34) summarizes the arguments why the -en suffix in Present-day English cannot be the straightforward continuation of this stem formant.
- 2.
Non-assertational is meant to capture the semantics of the infinitive. Cognitive Grammarians may prefer the term non-grounded.
- 3.
One reviewer points out that the reason for this peaceful coexistence may be that the old and the new form occupy different niches, and are not paradigmatic competitors anymore. The French negation pas follows a verb, whereas the noun follows a determiner. I am, however, not convinced that this applies to all cases. The German numeral ein and the indefinite article ein can occupy the same slot in the NP, and Dutch auxiliaries can occupy the same slot as lexical verbs, for instance.
- 4.
The use of diacritics for reconstructed forms (as well as attested forms, occasionally) in historical linguistics is not consistent across handbooks and articles. I have made no attempt to make all forms consistent, as the phonology plays little role in the present paper. I have taken the forms as they are represented in the sources I quote from. Greek forms are transliterated to Roman.
- 5.
This singulative meaning of the -n-affix may be considered an exaptation (pace Pronk 2015: 344, who objects to it being a reanalysis). In Germanic, it was widely used to derive body parts, and in Tocharian it developed into a marker for rational beings (Pronk 2015: 328, 340–341), which appear to be further exaptations. These developments will not be the focus of the present article though, which instead focusses on the exaptations in Germanic adjectives (see below).
- 6.
It cannot be ruled out that the stem-building -n-affix grew in productivity in Proto-Germanic, in its functioning as nominalizer from adjectives, like for instance in *manniskan- (‘human’, cf. Dutch mens, German Mensch), from weak adjective *mann-iska- ‘concerning man’ (Van Loey 1964: 131). Still, productivity is not the same as transparency. It seems that Germanic has extended the -n-affix to a wide range of contexts, beyond the original semantic constraints. This phenomenon can be seen elsewhere in Germanic morphology. The Germanic languages have a “reputed preference for ablaut” (Mailhammer 2008: 281), and use ablaut in contexts were it was unmotivated from an Indo-European perspective, probably because the transparency of its function was lost (see also below). In short, the productivity of the -n-affix in Germanic does not entail it was non-transparent.
- 7.
See Mitchell’s (1985: 56–60) discussion of the construction at issue for references to the theory that it may represent an older language stage.
- 8.
This is the main rule. There are many exceptions, motivated by subrules. In Netherlandic Dutch, the distribution is slightly different: the ‘strong’ inflection is used on attributive adjectives only when they occur in neuter indefinite singular NPs. So in that variety, definiteness still plays a role.
- 9.
Note that the schwa inflection on the determiner is synchronically similar to the weak adjectival inflection, but etymologically, in fact, a residue of the strong inflection. Such a reanalysis happens often in historical morphology, as shown in Van de Velde and Van der Horst (2013).
- 10.
One is welcome to disagree with the particulars of the formalization in (27)–(30), both the formal and especially the meaning parts to the left and right of the double arrows respectively, in the Proto-Indo-European, Proto-Germanic and Proto-Continental-West-Germanic state, which all rely on reconstruction, as far as they do not concern the main idea of the refunctionalization. The co-indexing of ‘affixes’ on the left hand side and the grammatical functions on the right hand side (e.g. -n affix-j ↔ pluralj) is not in conformity with the output-oriented, word-based approach in Construction Morphology, and is here used merely for convenience’s sake.
- 11.
As one reviewer points out, the -é- of *uksénes would not become -a- but -e-. The -a- can be explained as analogically transferred from other cases (probably the accusative singular), or the vowel could be reconstructed as -o- in Proto-Indo-European. This does not affect the analysis at hand, however.
- 12.
Of course, to the extent that the ablaut systematically distinguished the singular and the plural of the perfect, marking number may have been its original function. Still, the ŏ-grade is a more conspicuous marker of the perfect, as it is neither found in the singular of the present nor of the aorist.
- 13.
As pointed out above, the ‘nominal’ category in Proto-Indo-European includes the adjectival function.
- 14.
There are some verbs that have both reduplication and ablaut as preterite markers in Gothic, e.g. lētan ‘let’ – laílōt.
- 15.
The <ai> vowel in the reduplicating part is an /æ/.
- 16.
Vernerization of the anlaut-consonant of the stem was lost in Gothic.
- 17.
The ‘present’ in Proto-Indo-European is best seen as atelic aspect (Bartolotta 2009).
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Van de Velde, F. (2018). Iterated Exaptation. In: Booij, G. (eds) The Construction of Words. Studies in Morphology, vol 4. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74394-3_18
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