El desarrollo de perífrasis incoativas cuasi-sinónimas : entre construccionalización y lexicalización

This study deals with the evolution of inchoative periphrases in Spanish. In these constructions, verbs of placement (ponerse), change (romper) or movement (echarse) function as auxiliary verbs, combining with a subordinate infinitive to which they add aspectual meaning. The paper aims (i) to analyze the origins, as well as the functional and formal evolution of an understudied variant, romper a + infinitive, (ii) to determine the type of process of linguistic change it illustrates, lexicalization or constructionalization, and (iii) to answer the question to what extent near-synonymous periphrases develop in parallel ways. It exposes the results of a comparative diachronic study of three periphrases between the 13th and 21st centuries. It is shown that the inchoative schema has developed from placement verbs and, only in a later phase, included other lexical types. In order to explain the processes of change, both models, constructionalization and lexicalization, are indispensable