‘Wonder’ nouns and the development of a mirative constructional network: An exercise in semiotic diachronic construction grammar

This paper discusses the emergence and development of a mirative constructional network involving the
shell nouns wonder, marvel and chance, called ‘wonder’ nouns here. In combination with negative
quantifiers (e.g. no wonder), they can be used either lexically or as part of grammatical, mirative
markers, qualifying a proposition as unsurprising in view of another situation. The network emerges in
Old English around wonder, with three meso-constructions which differ in surface structure but all
inherit the anti-concessive schema from the macro-construction, consisting of a proposition, mirative
qualifier and justification. Two additional meso-constructions emerge in Middle English, which is also
the time when the Romance loan marvel joins the network, making it gain in schematicity, abstractness
and productivity. In Present-day English, another Romance loan, chance, expands the mirative network
even more. Throughout time, we observe node loss, node creation, constructional substitution and
changes in frequencies of constructions. Theoretically, we propose a semiotic approach to diachronic
construction grammar, arguing that multi-sign constructions invariably involve syntagmatic relations,
which are themselves form-meaning pairings. This approach allows us to capture generalizations which
would otherwise be missed.