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Home / Journal of Celtic Linguistics, Volume 17, Number 1

The Syntax and Semantics of Scottish Gaelic A' Dol A L1

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Authors: Schreiner, Sylvia L. R.; Carnie, Andrew

Source: Journal of Celtic Linguistics, Volume 17, Number 1, January 2016, pp. 1-30(30)

Publisher: University of Wales Press

We claim that the 'going to' (a' dol a L ) construction in Scottish Gaelic has undergone a reanalysis from an embedding verb-of-motion construction into an aspectual particle functional head, which expresses simple prospective aspect in meaning (locating the time of the event not after speech time (like future tense), but after the time already established by tense). In so doing it fills a gap in the paradigm of aspectual particles. A' dol a L is permitted in all three tenses, but not with other aspectual particles. In these ways a' dol a L parallels the behavior of the imperfective particle a' and perfect particle air. We take these facts to indicate that a' dol a L represents a distinction in aspect rather than tense. Using a number of constituency tests, we also show that despite its surface similarity to a complex embedding structure, it actually behaves like a single particle.

Document Type: Research Article

Publication date: 01 January 2016

More about this publication?

  • The Journal of Celtic Linguistics publishes articles and reviews on all aspects of the linguistics of the Celtic languages, modern, medieval and ancient, with particular emphasis on synchronic studies, while not excluding diachronic and comparative-historical work. This journal is of great interest to students of languages and Celtic studies, as well as members of the general public interested in the linguistic progression within Celtic languages and linguistic history. The editor is Lecturer in the Welsh Department at Aberystwyth University, and is supported by an editorial board including representatives from Oxford and Cambridge universities, and from universities across Europe and North America. Papers are invited in English, French or German on all fields/‘levels’ of analysis; phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics; formal or functional, cross-language typological or language-internal, dialectological or sociolinguistic, any theoretical paradigm.

    Mae’r Journal of Celtic Linguistics yn cynnwys erthyglau ac adolygiadau ar bob agwedd ar ieithoedd Celtaidd - modern, canoloesol a hynafol - gyda phwyslais arbennig ar astudiaethau syncronig, a heb eithrio gwaith diacronig a hanesyddol-gymharol. Y mae’r cyfnodolyn hwn yn ddefnyddiol i fyfyrwyr sydd yn astudio ieithoedd ac astudiaethau Celtaidd, yn ogystal â darllenwyr sy’n ymddiddori yn hanes datblygiadau’r ieithoedd Celtaidd. Mae’r golygydd yn Ddarlithydd yn Adran y Gymraeg, Prifysgol Aberystwyth, ac yn cydweithio â’r bwrdd golygyddol sydd â chynrychiolaeth o brifysgolion Rhydychen, Caergrawnt, ac o brifysgolion ledled Ewrop a Gogledd America.

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