Indexicality, semanticity and contact along the now < this time pathway

Abstract

This study presents data from modern Arabic innovations now < this time to investigate the cross-linguistic developmental pathway temporal deictic < [demonstrative [time noun]]. Products of this path (e.g., German heute, Spanish ahora) feature consistently in contrastive approaches to grammaticalization and lexicalization and have been advanced as exclusive examples of both phenomena, without clear resolution. In this investigation, I establish the derivation of now forms in dialectal Arabic from ten distinct [demonstrative [time noun]] source constructions and identify patterns of fusion and coalescence relevant to both grammaticalization and lexicalization analyses. I then demonstrate a correlated progression of indexicalization and desemanticization in these items’ semanto-pragmatic structure that firmly positions them as examples of grammaticalizing, rather than lexicalizing, change, and proceed to develop this account via examination of the cross-dialectal diffusion of now < this time as an abstract, schematized structure. This approach provides additional support for a grammaticalization account of temporal deictic < [demonstrative [time noun]] developments cross-linguistically and elaborates a novel evidentiary stream with implications for the integration of contact linguistics and grammaticalization/lexicalization studies more broadly.