Abstract Cross-linguistic diachronic studies have focused on the parallel or divergent development of cognate or functionally equivalent items. This paper traces the diachronic convergent development of two unrelated items by means of a case study, the development of the German verb scheinen ‘shine, emit light’ and English seem ‘(originally) befit, beseem’. Despite their different source meanings, the two verbs have grammaticalized into evidential markers, as is evidenced by the constructions scheinen + zu + infinitive and seem + to + infinitive. We use historical corpus data to show that the two verbs have converged both semantically and syntactically. Semantically the verbs converge when they acquire the sense ‘appear, become visible’, a well-known source of evidentials. Syntactically, scheinen and seem come to occur in the same range of constructional patterns. This development is more advanced in English, so that it is ahead of German by at least four centuries.

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两个不同的来源 - 一个目标

摘要 跨语言历时研究侧重于同源或功能等效项目的平行或发散发展。本文通过案例研究追溯了两个不相关项目的历时趋同发展，即德语动词 scheinen 'shine，emit light' 和英语 see '（本来）befit，beseem' 的发展。尽管它们的来源含义不同，但这两个动词已经语法化为证据标记，正如结构 scheinen + zu + 不定式和似乎 + to + 不定式所证明的那样。我们使用历史语料库数据来表明这两个动词在语义和句法上都收敛了。在语义上，动词在获得“出现，变得可见”的意思时会收敛，这是众所周知的证据来源。语法上，scheinen 和似乎开始出现在相同的结构模式中。这种发展在英语中更为先进，因此它至少领先德语四个世纪。