The Czech converb confronted with its French and Polish counterparts: Investigation of diachronic factors shaping the properties of converbs
The result's identifiers
Result code in IS VaVaI
<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F00216208%3A11210%2F25%3A10511180" target="_blank" >RIV/00216208:11210/25:10511180 - isvavai.cz</a>
Result on the web
<a href="https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111335551-013" target="_blank" >https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111335551-013</a>
DOI - Digital Object Identifier
<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/9783111335551-013" target="_blank" >10.1515/9783111335551-013</a>
Alternative languages
Result language
angličtina
Original language name
The Czech converb confronted with its French and Polish counterparts: Investigation of diachronic factors shaping the properties of converbs
Original language description
The aim of this study is to explore the historical factors that have shaped two distinctive features of the Czech converb, known as the transgressive in Czech linguistic tradition. These features, namely subject agreement and the futurate form for conveying Anteriority in future events, set the Czech converb apart from its counterparts in other Slavic languages and most European converbs. We argue that, beyond intralinguistic factors, extralinguistic influences related to standardization (codification) may play a significant role in the evolution of converbs. To investigate these influences, we compare the development of the Czech converb with those in French and Polish (gerondif and imiesłow przysłowkowy, respectively). Diachronic analysis reveals that the specifics of the Czech converb stem from normative interventions in Czech grammatical tradition dating back to the 16th century. Despite a trend towards adverbialization, subject agreement was retained in Czech, while Polish converbs embraced adverbialization. In the 19th century, the standardization of Czech modelled the norm after prestigious archaic usage from the 16th century, maintaining both subject agreement and the futurate form. Corpus analysis of 19th-century texts shows a decline in the frequency of Czech converb forms conveying Anteriority, contrasting with the stable frequency of the corresponding Polish forms. In the 20th-21st centuries, the frequency of all the Czech converb forms has significantly decreased, while French and Polish forms have remained stable. Additionally, the Czech converb has acquired a strong archaistic stylistic mark in contemporary language and its morphology is not part of the active linguistic competence of Czech speakers. We argue that these evolutions are largely influenced by the archaistic and complex norm, the choice of which was motivated by extralinguistic ideological and sociolinguistic factors.
Czech name
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Czech description
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Classification
Type
C - Chapter in a specialist book
CEP classification
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OECD FORD branch
60203 - Linguistics
Result continuities
Project
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Continuities
I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace
Others
Publication year
2025
Confidentiality
S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů
Data specific for result type
Book/collection name
Diachronic, Typological, and Areal Aspects of Converbs
ISBN
978-3-11-133544-5
Number of pages of the result
55
Pages from-to
361-415
Number of pages of the book
475
Publisher name
Walter de Gruyter
Place of publication
Berlin/Boston
UT code for WoS chapter
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