Genitive Variation in English. Conceptual Factors in Synchronic and Diachronic Studies

这本专著是对一种特殊类型的语法变异的实证研究，即英语中的属格变异（s-格与of-格）。本研究的主要实证发现是，与英语向分析性发展的总体趋势相反，从中古英语晚期到现代英语，更综合的s-格再次变得更有成效，本研究试图解释这一（乍一看）特殊的变化。在一项实验研究中，研究了各种概念因素对属格结构选择的影响（即动物性、话题性和所有格关系），并评估了它们的相对重要性。（在这方面，本研究还介绍了一种分析和权衡几个竞争因素相互作用的具体方法）。此外，它通过比较现代英语实验数据和历史语料库数据（早期现代英语），以一种有趣而新颖的方式结合了现在英语和过去英语的研究。引入了一种语法变异和变化的心理语言学方法，研究是什么让说话者选择一种属格结构而不是另一种，并根据经济驱动的语言变化来解释观察到的变化（对语言使用者来说，同步最优的变化在历时上变得更频繁）。本文还揭示了所有格从完全变化到定语的结构变化，以及s-格的新限定词功能与s-格的新生产力之间的关系，以及在这种发展中可能的（去）语法化过程是如何起作用的。

This monograph is an empirical study of a particular type of grammatical variation, i.e. the genitive variation in English (s-genitive vs. of-genitive). The main empirical finding of this study is that, counter to the general development of English towards more analyticity, the more synthetic s-genitive has become more productive again from late Middle English to Present-day English, and the present study sets out to account for this (at first glance) peculiar change. In an experimental study the impact of various conceptual factors on the choice of genitive construction (i.e. animacy, topicality, and possessive relation) is investigated and their relative importance is assessed. (In this respect, this study also introduces a specific way of analyzing - and weighing - theinteraction of several competing factors). Moreover, it combines the study of present and past English in an intriguing and new way by comparing Present-day English experimental data with historical corpus data (early Modern English). A psycholinguistic approach to grammatical variation and change is introduced, looking at what makes speakers choose one genitive construction rather than the other, and the observed change is accounted for in terms of economically-driven language change (what is optimal for the language user synchronically, becomes more frequent diachronically). It is also shown in which way the structural change of possessive `s from a fully-fledged inflection to a clitic as well as the new determiner function of the s-genitive relate to the observed new productivity of the s-genitive, and in which way possible (de)grammaticalization processes could be at work in this development.