The Evolution of Pragmatic Markers in English Pathways of Change

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3.2 Traugott’s Account of While

Examples of the development of while taken from Traugott ( 1995b : 40– 41)
are the following:

(1) a. ðæs mannes sawul is belocen on his lichaman ða hwile ðe he lybbende bið
(ÆCHom II 481)
‘Man’s soul is locked in his body while/ so long as he is alive’
b. Thar mycht succed na female, Quhill foundyn mycht be ony male (1375
Barbour, Bruce 1.60 [OED])
‘No female was able to succeed while any male could be found’
c. The Duke of York is gone down thither this day, while the Generall sat sleep-
ing this afternoon at the Counciltable (1667 Pepys, Diary 357– 58 [HC])

According to Hopper and Traugott ( 2003 : 107), while represents a “clear
case of shift from major to minor category” (or open to closed class member-
ship), from noun to conjunction, hence decategorialization in the most obvious
sense. Conjunctive while loses the ability to take articles or quantifi ers, it can-
not be modifi ed by adjectives or demonstratives, it cannot serve as subject or
other argument of the verb, it is restricted to initial position, and it cannot be
referred to by an anaphoric pronoun. Moreover, the development of while is
typical of grammaticalization in the following ways:

(a) The form changes from a phrase to a single item, becoming increas-
ingly fi xed and bound (“structural decategorialization ”  – Traugott
2003a : 644).
(b) It loses syntactic variability and comes to occupy a fi xed  slot.
(c) It evolves semantically/ pragmatically from more referential (i.e., lexical)
to less referential (i.e., grammatical) via context- induced inferencing.
(d) It develops increasingly abstract meaning.
(e) It undergoes divergence , i.e., the retention of full lexical characteristics
in some contexts alongside grammaticalization in other contexts (Hopper
1991 : 24– 25).

Table 3.1 The development of while (Traugott)

OE þa hw ī le þe
‘at the time that’

noun/

adverbial

phrase

propositional

meaning

concrete state

of affairs

ME wh ī le (that)
‘during’

adverb/

conjunction

textual

meaning

relevance of
simultaneity
EModE while
‘although’

conjunction interpersonal

meaning

implication of

contrast

Source: adapted from Laurel J. Brinton, “‘Whilom, as olde stories tellen us’: The discourse marker
whilom in Middle English,” in A.E. Christa Canitz and Gernot E. Wieland (eds.), From Arabye to
Engelond. Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 1999, p. 178; reprinted with permission.