The counterfactual life cycle : cyclicity, pragmatics, and modality
- Author
- Ezra la Roi (UGent)
- Organization
- Project
- Abstract
- Whereas most research has exclusively focused on counterfactual conditionals from a synchronic and/or typological perspective, this chapter provides a synthesis of the life cycles of counterfactual constructions. They first develop (1)) past-referring counterfactuality, subsequently develop (2)) non-past counterfactuality, and, lastly, become (3)) unstable, which may trigger reinforcement, loss of counterfactuality, or substitution. Based on corpus evidence from the history of Ancient Greek (eighth century bce to third century ce) and Indo-European languages, the chapter shows that different types of counterfactual constructions go through all three stages of the life cycle, are subject to different diachronic processes (e.g. innovation, insubordination, reinforcement, and contact-induced change) and pragmatic mechanisms (e.g. quantity implicature, temporal implicature semanticization, and expressive enrichment), and ‘spread’ their usage throughout the synchronic system of a language, especially via (analogical) spread to new syntactic contexts and pragmatic extension to indirect inferential patterns. Also, the chapter shows that the speed of substitutions depends on factors such as mood syncretism and prescriptivism.
- Keywords
- counterfactuality, cyclicity, pragmatics, modality, diachronic typology, insubordination, implicature, Ancient Greek, Indo-European languages
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Please use this url to cite or link to this publication: http://hdl.handle.net/1854/LU-01JE3PGKNG3G68W1S7EJQC3A3Y
- MLA
- la Roi, Ezra. “The Counterfactual Life Cycle : Cyclicity, Pragmatics, and Modality.” Cyclic Change in Grammar and Discourse, edited by Maj-Britt Mosegaard Hansen and Richard Waltereit, vol. 54, Oxford University Press, 2025, pp. 155–79, doi:10.1093/9780198940661.003.0007.
- APA
- la Roi, E. (2025). The counterfactual life cycle : cyclicity, pragmatics, and modality. In M.-B. M. Hansen & R. Waltereit (Eds.), Cyclic change in grammar and discourse (Vol. 54, pp. 155–179). https://doi.org/10.1093/9780198940661.003.0007
- Chicago author-date
- Roi, Ezra la. 2025. “The Counterfactual Life Cycle : Cyclicity, Pragmatics, and Modality.” In Cyclic Change in Grammar and Discourse, edited by Maj-Britt Mosegaard Hansen and Richard Waltereit, 54:155–79. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/9780198940661.003.0007.
- Chicago author-date (all authors)
- la Roi, Ezra. 2025. “The Counterfactual Life Cycle : Cyclicity, Pragmatics, and Modality.” In Cyclic Change in Grammar and Discourse, ed by. Maj-Britt Mosegaard Hansen and Richard Waltereit, 54:155–179. Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/9780198940661.003.0007.
- Vancouver
- 1.la Roi E. The counterfactual life cycle : cyclicity, pragmatics, and modality. In: Hansen M-BM, Waltereit R, editors. Cyclic change in grammar and discourse. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 2025. p. 155–79.
- IEEE
- [1]E. la Roi, “The counterfactual life cycle : cyclicity, pragmatics, and modality,” in Cyclic change in grammar and discourse, vol. 54, M.-B. M. Hansen and R. Waltereit, Eds. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2025, pp. 155–179.
@incollection{01JE3PGKNG3G68W1S7EJQC3A3Y,
abstract = {{Whereas most research has exclusively focused on counterfactual conditionals from a synchronic and/or typological perspective, this chapter provides a synthesis of the life cycles of counterfactual constructions. They first develop (1)) past-referring counterfactuality, subsequently develop (2)) non-past counterfactuality, and, lastly, become (3)) unstable, which may trigger reinforcement, loss of counterfactuality, or substitution. Based on corpus evidence from the history of Ancient Greek (eighth century bce to third century ce) and Indo-European languages, the chapter shows that different types of counterfactual constructions go through all three stages of the life cycle, are subject to different diachronic processes (e.g. innovation, insubordination, reinforcement, and contact-induced change) and pragmatic mechanisms (e.g. quantity implicature, temporal implicature semanticization, and expressive enrichment), and ‘spread’ their usage throughout the synchronic system of a language, especially via (analogical) spread to new syntactic contexts and pragmatic extension to indirect inferential patterns. Also, the chapter shows that the speed of substitutions depends on factors such as mood syncretism and prescriptivism.}},
author = {{la Roi, Ezra}},
booktitle = {{Cyclic change in grammar and discourse}},
editor = {{Hansen, Maj-Britt Mosegaard and Waltereit, Richard}},
isbn = {{9780198939054}},
keywords = {{counterfactuality,cyclicity,pragmatics,modality,diachronic typology,insubordination,implicature,Ancient Greek,Indo-European languages}},
language = {{eng}},
pages = {{155--179}},
publisher = {{Oxford University Press}},
series = {{Oxford Studies in Diachronic and Historical Linguistics}},
title = {{The counterfactual life cycle : cyclicity, pragmatics, and modality}},
url = {{http://doi.org/10.1093/9780198940661.003.0007}},
volume = {{54}},
year = {{2025}},
}
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