The Role of Elision in Evolutionary Processes

Abstract

Changes by elision—as well as those due to processes of adfunctionalization or refunctionalization—must be taken into account as explanatory mechanisms of linguistic change. In this paper, we study the role of elision in the theoretical overview of explanatory theories of language change by focusing on the evolutionary process of the Spanish adverb aparte. We analyze the consequences of the elision of an initial construction for the development of new functions as an exceptive or additive adverb, and as an additive connector with a specific meaning, conditioned by the evolution of the entire construction. We find that, in this case, the ellipsis of a verbal element has led to important modifications of the preserved item (aparte), not only at the semantic-pragmatic and functional levels but also in its category membership.

1. Objective and Hypothesis

The objective of this paper is to analyze the role played by elision in processes of grammatical evolution on the basis of the data provided by the changes undergone by of the particle aparte in the course of its history.1 The cases analyzed in texts from the 15th century onwards indicate that the functions that aparte acquired from the 16th century, first as an exceptive particle, and later on as an ‘adlative’ additive connector, have their origin in the integration of the adverb in certain absolute constructions which were widespread in the 16th century (dejando aparte, dejado aparte…), and which underwent the elision of the verb dejar ‘to leave’. Thus, the adverb aparte was pragmatically loaded with the meaning of the entire construction and experienced a major functional change when reanalyzed as an exceptive particle.

In other words, the history of aparte allows us to analyze to what extent a verbal elision constitutes the point of departure for a process of change that cannot be entirely explained by the Theory of Grammaticalization, and that has as its main consequence the semantic and functional complexity of aparte. As we will see, in current Spanish aparte works not only as an adverb of place—directional or locative (1a, 1b)—or as an adverb of manner (1c), but also as a noun (1d), as an adjective (1e), as an exceptive adverb (1f), as an additive adverb (1g), and as additive connector of specific meaning, which we have labeled an ‘adlative additive’ (Azofra Sierra 2014) (1h).2 As an exceptive and an additive, it admits prepositional or conjunctive extension (aparte de/[de] que).

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a. Llevaron aparte (‘a otro lugar’) al detenido.

“The person under arrest was taken aside.”

b. Enterraron el cuerpo aparte (‘en otro lugar’).

“The body was buried apart.”

c. Las invasiones se organizaron aparte (‘separadamente, de forma independiente’).

“Invasions were organised separately.”

d. La relación de los personajes se descubrió en un aparte (‘una conversación privada, que no oyen otras personas’).

“Relationships between the characters were unveiled in an aside.”

e. Cervantes es un escritor aparte (‘diferente’).

“Cervantes is a writer apart”

f. {Aparte del precio / El precio aparte} (‘excepto el precio’), es una compra estupenda.

“Its price apart, it’s an excellent buy.”

g. Aparte de guapa (‘además de guapa’), es muy buena persona.

“Apart from being beautiful, she’s a good person.”

h. No tiene ningún motivo para lamentarse: aparte de que (‘además de que’) tiene una familia estupenda, su trabajo es interesante y le permite disfrutar de una buena renta.

“She has no reason to complain. Besides having a wonderful family, her job is interesting and allows her to enjoy a good income.”

From the theoretical point of view, the explanatory scope of the Theory of Grammaticalization, especially in the case of the evolution of discourse markers, has been long questioned (cf. Company 2004; Garachana Camarero 2015; Pons Rodríguez 2010, for more in-depth analysis). In fact, not all changes can be explained by grammaticalization; that is to say:

[T]he change whereby lexical items and constructions come in certain linguistic contexts to serve grammatical functions, and, once grammaticalized, continue to develop new grammatical functions.

(Hopper and Traugott [1993] 2003, p. 18)

We believe that the evolutionary process of the particle aparte will allow us to analyze where to set elision within the theoretical overview of explanatory theories of language change. Finally, it is important to underline the fact that context as a locus of change comes to have changes by elision: Forms do not change in isolation¸ but they acquire new functions depending on their context and are—as we will see in this case—integrated into a given construction. It is, therefore, necessary to emphasize the importance of constructionalization (Traugott and Trousdale 2013). The result is a particle that acquires new functions in the course of its history while not losing the initial meanings linked to the locative adverbial category, in a process that could be defined as ‘adfunctionalization’ according to Smith (2011, p. 305): “The process in which a form assumes a new function alongside or in addition to its original function.”

2. The History of the Particle Aparte

2.1. Grammaticalization

Originally, aparte comes from a locative prepositional phrase that has been grammaticalized as an adverb, a {una/otra/su} parte > aparte (for a detailed analysis of the history of the particle aparte, cf. Azofra Sierra 2011). The original phrase, of which we have examples in (2), inherits a Latin construction with the preposition ad, whose meaning can be directional (‘hacia, a’) or situational (‘junto a’) depending on the context. From a theoretical point of view, the process that gives rise to the adverb of place can be explained in terms of grammaticalization: The original noun fails to admit determiners or complement phrases (2); it loses the possibility of number inflection, and the construction is blended as one single item, fixed as early as the medieval times: Invariable, and characteristically adverbial, either locative ‘a/en otro lugar’, ‘a distancia’ (3) or modal ‘separadamente’ (4).

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que se tiró a una parte por le dar el viento (c. 1300–1325, Cuento muy famoso de Otas de Roma).

“he stepped aside to avoid the gale”

b. que los freyres posauan a su parte (1293, Gran Conquista de Ultramar).

“that the friars put at their side”

c. e el uno, echado a otra parte medio vivo, mostraba razón de la muerte (a 1280, Alfonso X, General Estoria).

“and one, lying aside half alive, showed signs of death”

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a. Essora salién aparte ifantes de Carrión (c. 1140, Poema de Mio Cid).

“Then the princes of Carrión stood aside”

b. E de los çient cavalleros, llamó los veynte a parte delos mejores (c 1300–1325, Cuento muy fermoso de Otas de Roma).

“And from the one hundred knights, he called aside twenty of the best”

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Et si el bozero o el duenno del pleito quisiere aver consejo, que lo aya a parte; (1252, Documentos notariales).

“And if the lawyer or the litigant should wish to deliberate, let them do so apart;”

In these examples, the original function—both of the prepositional construction a {una/la/otra/ su} parte and the adverb aparte—is an adjunct of the verb, indicating a locative circumstance. As indicated by RAE and ASALE (2009: 30.2ñ), most adverbs in Spanish are adjuncts, that is, unselected modifiers. However, on the other hand, we find instances of the adverb aparte as a noun complement from the earliest texts on—probably after verbal ellipsis—constructions of the capítulo aparte type, which were frequent in legal texts.3 From the 15th century on, this construction increases and spreads to other contexts, until it generalizes in a variety of genres in the 17th century (reino aparte, conversación aparte...), see example (5):

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Él fundó a Roma en el monte Aventino e fizo regno aparte para sí (1427–1428, E. de Villena, Traducción y glosas de la Eneida)

“He founded Rome on the Mount Aventine and made a separate kingdom for himself”

Very much to the Latinizing taste of the age, an absolute construction became frequent in the 15th century, in which aparte was combined with the gerund or past participle of the verbs dejar or poner, with the meaning ‘to omit’ or ‘to ignore’, as illustrated in (6), (7) and (8):

(6)

Atreviéndose, todo temor aparte puesto, contra las defensiones legales (1427–1428, E. de Villena, Traducción y glosas de la Eneida).

“all fears set aside, he dared to oppose legal impediments”

(7)

no queda otro remedio sino que, dexando aparte los muertos, los bivos que quedan pongan (1482–1492, Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo, Amadís de Gaula).

“there is no choice but, leaving the dead aside, for those still living to remedy”

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Por tanto, dexadas lágrimas aparte, dezidme quién sois (1516, F. Bernal, Floriseo).

“So, leaving tears aside, tell me who you are”

These absolute clauses spread very quickly in the 16th century, as we can see in the table below, which shows the frequency of the absolute construction dejado/a/os/as aparte + NC or its equivalent from the 15th–19th century. We can observe how this construction becomes fixed in the 16th century and begins to become less frequent after the 17th century when ellipsis occurs (see

Table 1. Absolute construction frequencies over the centuries.

12th–14th c.	15th c.	16th c.	17th c.	18th c.	19th c.
	18	146	64	2	3

).

The establishment of this construction made the two constant elements—the verb and adverb—begin to act like a semantic unit, favoring the start of a new process of grammaticalization. Although an increase in frequency alone is no proof that there is a process of grammaticalization (Octavio de Toledo y Huerta 2014), other formal changes confirm this point: Agreement between the past participle and its subject is lost (masculine dejado vs. feminine la cámara), the verbal form is exclusively masculine singular, and in many cases the adverb moves to the position immediately after the participle, as we can see in example (9):4

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Y lo bueno que es que, dejado aparte la cámara a donde duermen y el estrado… (1550, P. de Luján, Coloquios matrimoniales).

“And the good thing is that, leaving aside the chamber where they sleep and the platform…”

Semantic evolution of the overall meaning of the construction also takes place: ‘Dejar a un lado’ comes to be used in the sense of ‘to ignore, to exempt’ now; and ‘poner a un lado’ has the meaning of ‘to add’. As an absolute clause, aparte usually has an exceptive meaning (10), though there is no shortage of examples with additive meaning (11):

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Éste será también mi gusto, porque, aparte nuestras peleas, don Benito es un amigo de corazón (1898, Á. Ganivet, Los trabajos del infatigable creador Pío Cid).

“That will also be my pleasure, because, our quarrels aside, don Benito is a dear friend”

(11)

y bien portado, casi daba gusto de socorrerle, aparte la obra de caridad (1898, Á. Ganivet, Los trabajos del infatigable creador Pío Cid).

“and so well-behaved, that, quite apart from it being a charitable work, it was almost a pleasure to help him”

2.2. Ellipsis and the Introduction of the Exceptive Particle

The high frequency of the construction starts to erode the lexical meaning of the verbal element as it loses its specific semantic content and alternates—without an appreciable difference—with other verbal elements like poner or sacar:

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Romper con grandísima destreza, poniendo géneros aparte, (1599, M. Alemán, Primera parte de Guzmán de Alfarache).

“breaking with extreme dexterity, putting goods aside,”

Over time, such unitary meaning would have made unnecessary the monotonous repetition of the less accurate meaning element (in this case, the verbal one: Dejar, poner, etc.) and would have favored ellipsis. The overall meaning of the expression would then fall on the element that remained, the adverb aparte, which initially expressed a circumstance of the verbal action and was reanalyzed as an exceptive modal adverb, meaning ‘omitted’, ‘not being considered’ as in (13).

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Pues sepan -replicó Sancho-, burlas aparte, que no solamente me toca a mí uno de los nombres que cada uno de vuessas mercedes tiene […], sino […] (1614, A. Fernández de Avellaneda, Don Quijote de la Mancha).

‘“May you know” replied Sancho, “that, jokes apart, it’s not just one of the names which each of Your Worships has that belong to me […], [but]…’

2.3. From Exceptive Particle to Adlative Additive Connector

The origin of aparte as an additive connector is closely associated with these uses since in many of the cases in which it has an exceptive meaning, aparte is linked to what is properly argumentative: Reasons, fears, opinions, etc. are ignored or left aside. This contextual meaning favors the semantic-pragmatic change that leads aparte to become an element of additive connection within the argumentative discourse. The existence of ambiguous contexts confirms this, as we can see in (14), where aparte can mean either ‘outside (in addition to)’ or ‘apart from’:

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Para que los cobren y empleen en lo que aparte de este testamento dejare ordenado (1681, P. Calderón de la Barca, Testamento).

“so that they collect and use them in what I shall order in addition to/apart from this will…”

The close connection between the verbal ellipsis and the introduction of the connector is also evident in some examples where the elimination of the verbal element ([dejado]) results in the use of aparte as an additive marker, as in examples (15) and (16):

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Sol.—En llegando a Valladolid, me habéis de dar un traslado desta loa, porque, [dejado] aparte que es de mucho gusto, me quiero aprovechar de algún remedio para limpiarme los dientes, aunque los tengo tan malos que me parece imposible que yo venga a tener en mi vida buena dentadura (1603, A. de Rojas Villadrando, El viaje entretenido).

“Sol.—When we arrive in Valladolid, you must give me a version of this prologue, because, quite apart from the fact that it is very pleasing, I want to use some remedy to clean my teeth, although they are in such a bad state that I think it is impossible that I will ever have a good set of teeth in my life”

(16)

Ellos nacieron con libertad de hombres, y ellas con recato de mujeres. Y así, por lo que deben ser más culpadas, [dexando] aparte que son más desgraciadas, es que como son las que pierden más, luce en ellas más el delito. Y por esto, como los hombres se juzgan los más ofendidos, quéxanse y condénanlas en todo, y así están hoy más abatidas que nunca, porque deben de ser los excesos mayores. Demás de esto, (1647–1649, María de Zayas y Sotomayor, Desengaños amorosos).

“Men are born with the freedom which is characteristic of men, and women are born with the modesty which is characteristic of women. And so it is that women must get blamed more, setting aside the fact that they are more unfortunate, because since they have more to lose, their misdeeds are more apparent. And on that account, since men judge themselves to be more greatly offended, they complain and condemn women in everything, and so women are now more oppressed than ever, because their excesses must be greater. Besides this ...”

We can observe the new functions developed by aparte after the 16th century in the following examples: Exceptive ‘except for’ (17) and additive ‘in addition to’ (18).

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¿Y lo demás? Nada. Allí no hay sexo. Aparte del orden, parece el cuarto de un estudiante (1885-85, Clarín, La Regenta).

“And the rest? Nothing. There is no sex. Except for its tidiness, it looks like a student’s room”

(18)

Carmen se confesaba en aquel instante a sí misma que toda la noche había pensado en el subteniente, que le era muy simpático, aparte de ser buen mozo; (1886, Clarín, Pipá).

“At that moment, Carmen was admitting to herself that she had been thinking of the lieutenant all night long, and that she found him very agreeable as well as handsome;”

In modern Spanish, obviously, we are no longer dealing with cases of ellipsis: In (17) and (18), aparte is already used as a connector. We postulate that the verbal elision in absolute constructions with dejar and poner led to aparte being endowed with new meanings, exceptive and additive, as a connector, without the need to resort to more complex construction.

3. The Specific Meaning of Aparte within the Additive Connection

The pragmatic meaning of aparte as an additive connector shows the persistence of its etymological meaning, which is why we have called such an additive connector ‘adlative’ (Azofra Sierra 2014). It thus differs from cases where the addition is ‘cumulative’ or ‘summative’, for which connectors such as encima or además are used (Espinosa Elorza 2010, pp. 157–58).

As we can see in example (18), it is clear that aparte is a particle that has a very peculiar procedural additive meaning. It coincides with además—a prototypical connector of the set of additives—in that the argument it shows has the same orientation as the previous one: It is co-orientated. On the other hand, it differs from además in that the argument headed by the connector aparte is unnecessary to reach the conclusion—by contrast with the one introduced by además, which is deemed necessary. In this respect, aparte behaves like encima, a connector that also introduces an unnecessary argument. However, since the argument introduced by the connector is presented as following a different line from the preceding argument, the fact that it can have less argumentative force does not contradict the expectations of the speaker—something that can happen with the connector encima—and this is precisely the origin of its use as a counter-argumentative connector (Garachana Camarero 2008). Aparte also differs from encima in that its argument does not carry an excessive, cumulative load, nor does it carry a subjective nuance.5

As we can see in example (19), this is the peculiarity of aparte in its procedural meaning as additive connector (vs. other additives):

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Tal vez por ahí puedas tú encontrar la solución –le sugirió Julio García a Antonio Casal–. Dirigiendo uno de esos organismos. Aparte de que el tipo de labor, humanitaria, es de las que a ti te gustan, resolverías tu vida. (1961, J. María Gironella, Un millón de muertos).

“Perhaps you can find the solution there: Managing one of those agencies,” suggested Julio García to Antonio Casal. “Apart from the fact that this is the kind of humanitarian work you like, it would sort your life out.”

Conclusion: to manage one of those agencies is the solution [to your problems]:

• Argument 1: You would sort your life out;
• Argument 2: You would do the type of job you like.

These are co-orientated arguments along different lines; the second is not necessary and it does not have greater argumentative force, nor does it have an excessive or evaluative nature (as opposed to encima). Being arguments of different types, they do not “add” anything to the reaching of a conclusion: They will not contradict the listener’s expectations. We observe that it may even happen, as in this example, that the argument introduced by aparte acts as a reinforcement of the main argument, despite actually being a much weaker argument. At any rate, it is evident that the argumentation follows two separate paths since two different types of reason are presented.

In the evolution of aparte there is a semantic-pragmatic change which conventionalizes its meaning of omission, or voluntary relegation outside the central point of attention, which developed from the original locative meaning of the adverb, and this process is the basis of its use as an additive connector. Exception and addition can be seen as contextual readings of the same evaluative attitude from the speaker, who introduces something that is not essential (and may not even be important) to the argumentative sequence and must be considered as lateral or secondary to the particle aparte. The context will clarify to the listener whether he needs to add this as additional information (‘poniéndolo al lado [del resto de la argumentación]’) or dispense with it (‘dejándolo a un lado’).

However, the use of aparte as an exceptive particle is not entirely comparable to that of the most prototypical exceptive particles in Spanish (excepto and salvo): Unlike these, aparte is usually not interpreted as relating to a universal quantified expression: “Vinieron todos {excepto/salvo/*aparte de} ella” [“They all came except for her”]. This behavior may explain why aparte has developed an additive value that is not possible with the more univocal exceptive particles.

In other cases of grammaticalization, ellipsis also occurs in one of the elements of the original expression (cf. Garachana Camarero 1998, regarding the marker no obstante; Elvira 2009, regarding some expressions with concessive function; and Pérez Saldanya and Salvador 2014, regarding concessive constructions such as no obstante (esto), sin embargo (de que…)). In our case, similarly, the contextual meaning of the expression has become conventionalized; in addition, ellipsis occurs because one of the elements, now semantically eroded, becomes dispensable.

4. Aparte in Lexicographical Works

Since the categorization of this particle is problematic, we consider it also necessary to carry out a specific study of the lexicographical treatment it has received, as in many cases this is very illustrative of the changes undergone by the adverb and its resistance to an analysis which covers the whole complexity of its evolution. We provide some examples of interest in the final Appendix A: Diccionario de autoridades, Diccionario histórico de la lengua española, Diccionario de uso del español, Diccionario del español actual, Diccionario de la lengua española, Diccionario panhispánico de dudas.

Successive editions of the Real Academia Española (RAE)’s Diccionario de la lengua española—henceforth DRAE—have collected these changing meanings and have thus shown the difficulty in assigning a grammatical category to some of these new functions. We can observe how in DRAE 1803 the phrase dexar aparte (‘to omit’) is no longer present. Aparte maintains its categorization as an adverb of manner (‘apart from, drawing a distinction’) in its first meaning entry. In 1899, the adverb of manner is divided into two meanings: ‘separadamente, con omisión’ (‘apart from, drawing a distinction’) and ‘con omisión, con preterición’ (‘omitting’). For the first time, we find the meaning as an adverb of place, in its purely locative meaning: ‘en otro lugar’ (‘elsewhere’). In DRAE 1914, the adverbial uses of place split into two meanings: ‘en otro lugar’ (‘elsewhere’) and ‘a distancia, desde lejos’ (‘at a distance, away’); there are no changes in its uses as adverb of manner. In 1970, the adjectival meaning is added, ‘diferente, distinto, singular’ (‘different, peculiar)’, with an example which is maintained until 2001: “Góngora es un autor APARTE en la poesía española”. In RAE 1992, a new category is introduced:

Aparte de. loc. prepos. Con omisión de, con preterición de. U. t. sin la preposición y pospuesto al nombre. APARTE impuestos, impuestos APARTE.

(DRAE 1992)

In DRAE 2001, with the meaning ‘con omisión de, con preterición de’, it is considered a preposition, but in 2014 it is categorized as an adverb, even though the same examples and definitions are applied. Regarding additive meaning, only some lexicographical works explicitly mention an “additive” nature (Moliner 1970; Santos 2003). In the works by the RAE, we must understand that aparte is considered as a contextual variant of the adverb of manner: DHLE: “adv. m. Además de, separadamente”; DRAE: “adv. m. Separadamente, con distinción”. Cuervo ([1886–1893] 1994) does not list aparte as an additive adverb, nor does he relate it to además or encima; he does not explicitly refer to the exceptive uses either (in no case does he employ paraphrases like ‘fuera de’ in order to explain the meaning of aparte). Problems of categorization have been reflected in the definitions found in lexicographical works. The categorization of some uses is quite heterogeneous. We find these conflicting uses:

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Aparte de esto: Prepositional vs. adverbial phrase. Aparte has the potentiality for prepositional (aparte de) and conjunctive (aparte [de] que) extension.

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Phrases like un cuaderno aparte, ‘independent’: Postnominal preposition vs. adjective vs. adverb as noun complement.

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Absolute clauses of the bromas aparte type or independent complements like impuestos aparte: Postnominal preposition vs. adjective vs. adverb following the ellipsis of a verb such as dejar.

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Aparte as attribute? El café es aparte: Adjective vs. locative adverb.

As explained in Azofra Sierra (2011), problems in categorization are largely due to the elision that has taken place in the evolutionary process.

5. Conclusions

We have reviewed the process of evolution of the connector aparte, attempting to find in its history the reasons for its specific meaning as an additive connector, which distinguishes it from other additives: when it adds an argument, the marker indicates that this is not necessary to reach the conclusion, but neither is it an element of greater argumentative force than the first one, and in fact, what the hearer must infer is that the argument introduced by aparte permits the reaching of the same conclusion as that expressed by the first argument, but via by another track of reasoning. Aparte is also an additive connector, but it presents specific characteristics linked to its etymological meaning; thus, compared to other connectors that show addition in their vertical dimension (like encima or sobre esto), aparte does so in a horizontal dimension, like junto/juntamente con esto, medieval allende de esto or fuera de esto: That is to say, one item is added next to another. Hence, the additives of this type can express addition and exception simultaneously. This special type of connection, which we call ‘adlative addition’, is to be considered the characteristic property of aparte (and fuera de, or medieval allende de): These connectors are used to introduce arguments that follow another route or pathway in reasoning, adding elements of a different type. Besides the additive function, some of the works consulted explicitly distinguish two meanings of aparte: Additive and exceptive. These meanings are very close, and can even occasionally coincide, precisely because of the special meaning of aparte as an additive to which we have referred above.

At the theoretical level, the study of the evolution of aparte allows us to draw some conclusions about the explanatory capacity of different mechanisms proposed to explain linguistic changes: Constructionalization, grammaticalization, or the relationship of this with adfunctionalization and refunctionalization processes. We have seen that grammaticalization cannot explain all the processes of change and that grammaticalization and lexicalization are not opposing processes: In the elision of aparte, there are changes which are characteristic of grammaticalization, but the elision of the verb causes the entry of a new item in the lexicon: Aparte ‘with omission’. It would be questionable whether all processes of grammaticalization give rise to grammatical elements or whether some of these processes result in lexical items of great complexity due to the lexical load which they have inherited from the original constructions.

On the other hand, attention should be called to the enormous complexity that changes by elision can cause in the categorical values of the new forms, as is evident in the case of aparte: The problems of categorization of the new polyfunctional form, which are reflected in the lexicographical works, show the great grammatical complexity of the units which are the result of changes by elision, due in large measure to the inheritance of the meanings of the entire initial construction.

Finally, we have highlighted the importance of context in the changes due to elision by which aparte becomes an exceptive/additive particle. Our study has attempted to make it clear that elision must be taken into account as a mechanism in explaining the linguistic change since it often initiates processes which are complementary to those of grammaticalization and can contribute to a better understanding of some of the complex processes of change such as those undergone by the particle aparte.