Gram - SEAS

7
Grammatica l ization across clauses
7. 1 Introduction
Ordinary discourse does not consist of isolated, context-free ulterances,
but of linked discourse units comprising reports, orders, comments, descriptions,
and other kinds of linguistic activity. These units, usually expressed by clauses,
Iypically consist of a verb and indicators of the arguments of the verb, in the form
of lexical nouns, pronouns, or pronominal affixes. All languages have devices for
linking clauses together into what are called complex sentences. These tend to
be classified in grammars according to fu nctional-semantic principles, for example,
whether a clause fu nctions as an NP (complements, or "noun clauses," thai
are arguments of the clause), modifies an NP (relative clauses), or has adverbial
fu nctions (e.g., temporal, causative, or conditional clauses). However, the form
of a "complex sentence" may differ quite radically among languages and among
speakers and occasions of speech in one and the same language, from fairly simple
juxtapositions of relatively independent clauses characteristic of casual speech,
such as (I), 10 complex dependent rhetorical constructions typically arising in the
context of traditions of wrilten grammar, such as (2):
(I) Within the decade there will be an earthquake. It is likely to destroy the whole
town.
(2) That there will be an earthquake within the decade that will destroy the whole
town is likely.
It has been customary to discuss the development of markers of clause linkage such
as the two instances of that in (2) in terms of grammaticalization. For example, the
development of complementizers, conditional conjunctions, relativizers, and so
forth are standard topics exemplifying the grammaticalization of lexical items or
the increased grammaticalization of already grammatical items in specilic contcxts
(in this case, the context of clause combining). So are syntactic changes whereby
initially separate clauses may become totally interlaced such that the boundaries
between clauses may become obscured at the surface level (e.g., (It) seems that
he is right > He seems to be right), or at least a clause may become attached to a
constituent inside the matrix clause.
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