Testing the noun-to-measure development path
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.36505/ExLing-2024/15/0011/000636Keywords:
measures, pseudo-partitives, development path, grammaticalizationAbstract
The experiment described herein tested unit words (e.g. bunches, heaps, lots) in various contexts thereby testing theories of how their use evolves. Participants rated the naturalness of naturally occurring sentences with bunches, heaps, and lots and sentences created by swapping the unit words in the original sentences (e.g. lots replaced with heaps). Swapping unit words across naturally occurring sentences allows testing the hypothesis that unit words grammaticalize from noun to measure, assuming bunches is a noun denoting objects, lots is a nominal denoting a unit of measure, and heap(s) is used in both ways. Superficially, our results support the idea of a uni-directional development path, but linear models fail to support this hypothesis, so further work is necessary.
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Articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
