Walters, Emma Theresa (2023) Semantic innovation and grammaticalization of the English loanword type in colloquial Hindi. PhD thesis, Birkbeck, University of London.
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Abstract
Recent years have seen increased interest in the grammaticalization of type nouns cross-linguistically. This thesis contributes to the growing body of research in the field by using naturally occurring data to investigate innovative uses of the English loanword type in colloquial Hindi by residents of the North Indian Himalayan town of Pithoragarh. A semantic-pragmatic and syntactic analysis of the spoken data reveals that the functions of type in Hindi mirror the grammaticalized functions of type cognates in other languages, including uses as a similative and a hedge, and incipient uses as a quotative marker, a general extender and a discourse marker. The emergence of type in a language already replete with lexical options offers a unique opportunity for comparison between the functions of type and those of equivalent Hindi lexemes. Of particular import is the analysis of aisa ‘like this’ and related lexemes, a class known as ‘similative demonstratives’ (van der Auwera and Sahoo, 2020). Highly prolific in Hindi, similative demonstratives share many of the extended functions of synonyms of like and of type, but also ‘discourse-structuring devices’ associated with English such and German so (König, 2020). A ‘phoric’ construction formed with loanword type appears in similar contexts to similative demonstrative aisa beyond the remit of a modifier, showing evidence of semantic-pragmatic extension and decategorialization. This thesis presents a motivated argument that type may have modelled itself on aisa and be grammaticalizing along a similar path or indeed paths. Finally, the study offers a novel contribution to research into type noun grammaticalization due to type’s status as a recent loanword. Whilst being fully integrated into the Hindi lexicon there is evidence that loanword type also retains its status as an English-origin lexeme, functioning as a flag for English code-switches alongside its hedging role.
Metadata
| Item Type: | Thesis |
|---|---|
| Copyright Holders: | The copyright of this thesis rests with the author, who asserts his/her right to be known as such according to the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988. No dealing with the thesis contrary to the copyright or moral rights of the author is permitted. |
| Depositing User: | Acquisitions And Metadata |
| Date Deposited: | 07 Feb 2023 12:33 |
| Last Modified: | 01 Nov 2023 16:01 |
| URI: | https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/50603 |
| DOI: | https://doi.org/10.18743/PUB.00050603 |
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