The role of atypical constellations in the grammaticalization of German and English passives

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title>
<jats:p>In this paper we propose an alternative scenario for the
grammaticalization of passive constructions in German and English. According to
the received view, the development starts with the frequent combinations of
copula verbs with past participles, which then increasingly gain in frequency
during the grammaticalization process. In contrast to the received view, we
argue that marginal – i.e., atypical and infrequent – constellations of
constructions play an important role in the grammaticalization process. These
constellations are ambiguous in their interpretation, and consequently have an
inherent potential to trigger semantic reinterpretation and syntactic
reanalysis. The alternative scenario is more consistent with theoretical
considerations and the patterns in corpus data of German and English between
1050 and 1350. Our paper supports the hypothesis that the grammaticalization of
the passive in German started from constellations of the <jats:sc>become</jats:sc> copula
with past participles of atelic verbs, i.e., activities and semelfactives. By
contrast, no such change can be observed in the corresponding construction in
English. We discuss the implications of our findings for constructional change
and grammaticalization in general.</jats:p>