On the Pragmatics of Subjectification: Emergence and Modalization of an Allative Future in Ancient Egyptian

In this talk, we argue for a pragmatic basis for semantic change of the type observed in grammaticalization, viz., the conventionalization of conversational inferences (see, e.g., Bybee et al. 1994, Traugott & Dasher 2002, Ariel 2008) or more generally, the diachronic transfer of meaning from context to code (Givón 2005). Specifically, we claim that addressees (listeners/readers as active discourse participants) make inferences and in turn, as speakers/writers, propagate them, leading to their generalization. A crucial distinction must be made between SUBJECT-ORIENTED and SPEAKER-ORIENTED inferences, implicitly argued for in Bybee et al. (1994) and clearly downplayed in contemporary discussions such as Traugott & Dasher (2002). In SUBJECT-ORIENTED inferences, addressees interpret the utterance as a speaker’s report about the subject’s state of mind, while in the SPEAKER-ORIENTED ones, addressees interpret the utterance as reporting on the state of mind of the speaker. Speaker-oriented inferences are those that lead to the relaxing of selectional restrictions on subjects observed in a number of grammaticalization paths (illustration with allative future in the talk). Speaker-oriented inferences also lead to a rise in context-expansion and text frequency of constructions, which in turn catalyze many of the phenomena associated with grammaticalization.