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This paper examines the potential parallel between the ontogenetic and historical processes of grammaticalization of existential there. Taking Christopher Johnson's (1999Johnson's ( , 2001Johnson's ( , 2005) ) analysis of Child English as a starting point, the article tests the relevance of his theory of constructional grounding or developmental reinterpretation to the diachronic evolution of existential thereconstructions in the earliest stages of the English language. The data show that, as in the case of child language acquisition, the existential pattern (There's a dog in the yard) is historically grounded in the deictic construction (There's the dog running around ) and that double-locative overlap structures played a key role in the process of change.

Author

María José López-Couso

Publisher

Walter de Gruyter GmbH

Published

2011

Language

EN