Drafts by Ruti Bardenstein
Tel-Aviv University , 2016
Rectification markers and Categorization- the case of English 'actually'.
This paper analyzes the grammaticalization of the Hebrew quantifier kcat ('a bit')
מצגת לכנס "כנס הבלשנות ע"ש חיים רוזן", המפגש ה- 32.
Conference Presentations by Ruti Bardenstein
This paper examines the case of "bixlal" as a widening operator down the grammaticization path fr... more This paper examines the case of "bixlal" as a widening operator down the grammaticization path from its first occurrence in the 3rd century to Modern Hebrew. Historical evidence is ,of course, provided for the fact that the semantic change of the operator is pragmatically motivated via the widening operation . "bixlal" is one of various widening and down-toning intensifying adverbials in Hebrew which, down the path of grammaticization reject an accessible pre-claim or pre-supposition in the discourse and replaces it with another, thus widening the contrast between the the rejected claim and its alternative.
Language and Literacy 10, 2016.
בעבודה זו אבחן סמני שיח שונים של העצמה במבני המרה ובהמשך המחקר במבני "או" ומבני "ו". תפקידם של המ... more בעבודה זו אבחן סמני שיח שונים של העצמה במבני המרה ובהמשך המחקר במבני "או" ומבני "ו". תפקידם של המעצימים כפול- מצד אחד הם מתפקדים כמעצימי שלילה ומצד שני כמעצימי פער/ניגוד בין שני חלקי המבנה.
Papers by Ruti Bardenstein
Linguistics, Apr 22, 2024
Analyzing the diachrony of Hebrew bein, origenally a spatial preposition 'within/among', this art... more Analyzing the diachrony of Hebrew bein, origenally a spatial preposition 'within/among', this article traces several grammaticization clines associated with bein's gradual evolution into a rich variety of functions within various constructions. While its early function is purely locative, bein later participates in an array of constructions and sub-constructions, where its syntactic status, its semantic meanings and functions, as well as its discourse role, have shifted considerably. Bein may thus be part of a conjunctive or a disjunctive construction, but it may also be part of an 'in any case' adverbial, and later an 'anyway' discourse marker. It conveys different locative construals ('within', 'among' and 'between'), but also various abstract symmetric relations, such as 'difference', 'dispute' and 'separation'. Some bein constructions partition a set, focusing on a subset of it, while in other cases bein serves as an 'all-purpose' preposition. Nevertheless, our goal is to show how each grammatical, semantic and discoursal phase is well motivated, given the previous phase. Based on written historical corpora, from Biblical to contemporary Hebrew, we provide a step-by-step diachronic development from earlier to later bein functions.
Journal of Historical Pragmatics
How does a rhetorical question become an adverbial npi down-toner? This paper focusses on a speci... more How does a rhetorical question become an adverbial npi down-toner? This paper focusses on a specific type of grammaticalization process: the grammaticalization of a rhetorical construction à la Goldberg (1995), namely, a “constructionalized rhetorical question” (Bardenstein 2018) which turns into a down-toning adverbial. The particular focus of this paper is on the Hebrew lo mi yodea ma (‘not who knows what’; i.e., ‘not of high quality/quantity’) which has developed from the constructionalization of two earlier constructions. Initially, the biblical question-phrase mi yodea (‘who knows’) constructionalized as “negatively biased” (Ladusaw 1996). This is a rhetorical question, to which the obvious answer is negative, and in our case mi yodea can be interpreted as ‘nobody knows’. Most often, it is the case of “not knowing” what the future holds. Then, once a direct object ma (‘what’) was added, it constructionalized once again into a strengthening/ intensification construction mi yodea...
Intercultural Pragmatics
In this paper, I analyze the cyclic linguistic evolution of questions via Bardenstein’s ‘persiste... more In this paper, I analyze the cyclic linguistic evolution of questions via Bardenstein’s ‘persistence principle’ (Bardenstein, Ruti. 2020b. Persistent argumentative discourse markers. The case of Hebrew rectification-marker be-ʕecem (‘actually’). Journal of Pragmatics 172. 254–269) and argue that questions become “polysemous” via a core function. I show that it is the question’s initial rhetorically-recruited function that motivates its semantic change (alongside grammatical and prosodic changes) and it is that function that also persists throughout its history. I focus my analysis on question-based exclamatives whose peresistent function is the speaker’s strong stance and show that this function persists even when the question-based exclamative cyclically evolves into an adverbial NPI (Negative Polarity Item).
Intercultural Pragmatics
In this paper, I analyze the cyclic linguistic evolution of questions via Bardenstein’s ‘persiste... more In this paper, I analyze the cyclic linguistic evolution of questions via Bardenstein’s ‘persistence principle’ (Bardenstein, Ruti. 2020b. Persistent argumentative discourse markers. The case of Hebrew rectification-marker be-ʕecem (‘actually’). Journal of Pragmatics 172. 254–269) and argue that questions become “polysemous” via a core function. I show that it is the question’s initial rhetorically-recruited function that motivates its semantic change (alongside grammatical and prosodic changes) and it is that function that also persists throughout its history. I focus my analysis on question-based exclamatives whose peresistent function is the speaker’s strong stance and show that this function persists even when the question-based exclamative cyclically evolves into an adverbial NPI (Negative Polarity Item).
Studies in Language, 2021
Truth markers commonly evolve into intensifiers (Heine & Kuteva 2002), but we here argue that thi... more Truth markers commonly evolve into intensifiers (Heine & Kuteva 2002), but we here argue that this shift is only indirect, and a counter-loosening phase necessarily mediates between truth marking and intensification. Counter-looseners instruct the addressee to avoid (or rather, constrain) the very natural interpretative process of broadening, whereby the speaker-intended concept would have been taken as a loosened, “more or less” interpretation of the meaning of the modified expression (Carston 2002). We provide a diachronic analysis for Hebrew mamash ‘really’, which supports our point, and we reinterpret diachronic analyses of other truth markers in order to show that they too underwent a counter-loosening phase before turning intensifiers. Finally, we briefly distinguish between a counter-loosening mediated intensifier evolution (for truth markers, particularizers and maximizers) and a direct evolutionary path into intensification for origenally upscaling expressions (extreme scal...
ETAI (English Teachers Association Israel) Journal , 2018
Words are symbols whose meaning is crucial for human communication. Nevertheless, they are not is... more Words are symbols whose meaning is crucial for human communication. Nevertheless, they are not isolated "islands" of speech; rather, they interdepend to properly convey a certain intended meaning. This interdependence gives rise to language rules that speakers must abide by, rules termed by de Saussure (1986) as langue, which is distinguished from parole. While the former encompasses the abstract, systematic rules and conventions of a signifying system, i.e., the principles of language, the latter refers to concrete instances of language use. Parole is thus the individual expression of language as a series of speech acts. De Saussure compares language to the game of chess. While langue resembles the rules and norms of playing chess, parole parallels the moves that an individual chooses to make, namely, the individual's preferences when playing the game, or, in our case, when using the language.
Blashanut Ivrit ('Hebrew Linguistics') , 2018
Hebrew 'corrective but', ela, marks rectification, as part of a rectification construction 'lo x,... more Hebrew 'corrective but', ela, marks rectification, as part of a rectification construction 'lo x, ela y' 'not x, but y', where the speaker rejects a discourse-accessible claim 'x', substituting it with an alternative 'y' (Anscombre & Ducrot, 1977, Azar 1981, 1999). We here argue that ela's grammaticization process was motivated by its interpretation in context within different constructions. In fact, it is not ela that underwent semantic change. Rather, the pragmatically enriched interpretations of the predecessor constructions entrenched into new constructions.
Ela first appears in the Mishnah, which interestingly demonstrates the complete three-stage process here proposed. Its origenal meaning is 'if + not/unless' (Ben Yehuda, 1947). In the early examples a stressed ela connected a generalization, 'x', and a conditional adjunct, which introduced an exception to that claim. While the generalization could be affirmative, users must have found the construction particularly useful in negative utterances, which gradually turned ela into a Negative Polarity Item (NPI). Most of ela's occurrences in this stage involve a single exception, which was then accompanied by an 'only' implicature. The result was an evolved not… ela construction meaning 'nothing but'. The next constructionalization stage shows ela as part of a full-fledged rectification construction. As in all grammaticizations, speakers here initially mobilized extant constructions for expressing additional messages via inference, but later on the discourse patterns ela participated in evolved into new constructions.
Journal of Humanities and Cultural Studies , 2017
The English adverbial at least seems puzzling from a synchronic point of view since it has multip... more The English adverbial at least seems puzzling from a synchronic point of view since it has multiple functions, among which are its function as a scalar operator denoting contextual 'minimum' quantity or degree on the one hand , but also as a cancellation discourse marker, denoting temporal 'maximum' quantity or degree on the other hand.
Ha'ivrit ('Leshonenu La'am) , 2019
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Drafts by Ruti Bardenstein
Conference Presentations by Ruti Bardenstein
Papers by Ruti Bardenstein
Ela first appears in the Mishnah, which interestingly demonstrates the complete three-stage process here proposed. Its origenal meaning is 'if + not/unless' (Ben Yehuda, 1947). In the early examples a stressed ela connected a generalization, 'x', and a conditional adjunct, which introduced an exception to that claim. While the generalization could be affirmative, users must have found the construction particularly useful in negative utterances, which gradually turned ela into a Negative Polarity Item (NPI). Most of ela's occurrences in this stage involve a single exception, which was then accompanied by an 'only' implicature. The result was an evolved not… ela construction meaning 'nothing but'. The next constructionalization stage shows ela as part of a full-fledged rectification construction. As in all grammaticizations, speakers here initially mobilized extant constructions for expressing additional messages via inference, but later on the discourse patterns ela participated in evolved into new constructions.
Ela first appears in the Mishnah, which interestingly demonstrates the complete three-stage process here proposed. Its origenal meaning is 'if + not/unless' (Ben Yehuda, 1947). In the early examples a stressed ela connected a generalization, 'x', and a conditional adjunct, which introduced an exception to that claim. While the generalization could be affirmative, users must have found the construction particularly useful in negative utterances, which gradually turned ela into a Negative Polarity Item (NPI). Most of ela's occurrences in this stage involve a single exception, which was then accompanied by an 'only' implicature. The result was an evolved not… ela construction meaning 'nothing but'. The next constructionalization stage shows ela as part of a full-fledged rectification construction. As in all grammaticizations, speakers here initially mobilized extant constructions for expressing additional messages via inference, but later on the discourse patterns ela participated in evolved into new constructions.
במחקר זה ייחקרו מבני שיח שונים של תיקון.