Martín Arista, JavierIbáñez Moreno, Ana2026-01-232026-01-232001-01-01Ibáñez Moreno A. y Martín Arista J. (2001). El rasgo [±] animado y las explicaciones funcionales: dos casos de morfosintaxis diacrónica. Estudios Ingleses de la Universidad Complutense, 9, 147. https://revistas.ucm.es/index.php/EIUC/article/view/EIUC0101110147A1133-0392https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14468/31551La versión registrada de este artículo, publicado por primera vez en “Estudios Ingleses de la Universidad Complutense, 9 (2001), 147-169", está disponible en línea en el sitio web del editor: Universidad Complutense de Madrid, https://revistas.ucm.es/index.php/EIUC/article/view/EIUC0101110147AThe registered version of this article, first published in “Estudios Ingleses de la Universidad Complutense, 9 (2001), 147-169", is available online at the publisher's website: Universidad Complutense de Madrid, https://revistas.ucm.es/index.php/EIUC/article/view/EIUC0101110147AThis journal article contributes to the notion of functional explanation in diachrony by discussing two independent morphosyntactic evolutions that took place in Early English, namely the rise of the syntactic possessive postmodifier and the replacement of grammatical gender with natural gender. At the theoretical level the role of competing functional principles which account for opposite evolutionary forces is explored, particularly paradigmatic economy and syntagmatic cross-domain harmomy vs. asymmetry in language coding and processing. The conclusion is drawn that the feature [± animate] motivates and restricts paradigm economy and crossdomain harmony, in such a way that the functional explanation of the phenomena under scrutiny constitutes a compromise solution between the morphosyntactic tendency to the maximization of structure and the semantic tendency to the minimization of meaning. 1.esinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess5505.10 Filologíaartículo