The Limits of Grammaticalization

The Limits of Grammaticalization
Author: Anna Giacalone Ramat
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
Total Pages: 309
Release: 1998-01-01
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 902722935X

The earliest use of the term “grammaticalization” was to refer to the process whereby lexical words of a language (such as English keep in “he keeps bees”) become grammatical forms (such as the auxiliary in “he keeps looking at me”). Changes of this kind, which involve semantic fading and a downshift from a major to a minor category, have generally been agreed to come under the heading of grammaticalization. But other changes that equally contribute to new grammatical forms do not involve this kind of fading. In recent years, a debate has arisen over how to constrain the term theoretically. Is grammaticalization to be distinguished from “lexicalization”, the creation and fixing of new words out of older patterns of compounding? If so, how is the line to be drawn between a form that is grammatical and one that is lexical? Should the term “grammaticalization” be extended to the study of the origins of grammatical constructions in general? If so, it will have to include broader issues such as word order change and the reanalysis of phrases. What principles govern these processes? Is grammaticalization a unidirectional event, or can change occur in the reverse direction? The authors of the papers in this volume approach these important questions from a variety of data types, including historical texts, creoles, and a typologically broad sample of modern and ancient languages.

Grammaticalization

Grammaticalization
Author: Paul J. Hopper
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 300
Release: 2003-07-31
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9780521804219

This is a general introduction to grammaticalization, the change whereby lexical terms and constructions come in certain linguistic contexts to serve grammatical functions, and, once grammaticalized, continue to develop new grammatical functions. The authors synthesize work from several areas of linguistics. The second edition has been thoroughly revised with substantial updates on theoretical and methodological issues that have arisen in the decade since the first edition, and includes a significantly expanded bibliography. Particular attention is paid to recent debates over directionality in change and the role of grammaticalization in creolization.

Grammar Without Grammaticality

Grammar Without Grammaticality
Author: Geoffrey Sampson
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
Total Pages: 360
Release: 2013-11-27
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 3110290014

Linguists have standardly assumed that grammar is about identifying all and only the 'good' sentences of a language, which implies that there must be other, 'bad' sentences - but in practice most linguists know that it is hard to pin those down. The standard assumption is no more than an assumption. A century ago, grammarians did not think about their subject that way, and our book shows that the older idea was right: linguists can and should dispense with the concept 'starred sentence'. We draw on corpus data in order to support a different model of grammar, in which individuals refine positive grammatical habits to greater or lesser extents in diverse and unpredictable directions, but nothing is ever ruled out. Languages are not merely alternative methods of verbalizing universal logical forms. We use empirical evidence to shed light on the routes by which school-age children gradually expand their battery of grammatical resources, which turn out to be sometimes counter-intuitive. Our rejection of the 'starred sentence' concept has attracted considerable discussion, and we summarize the reactions and respond to our critics. The contrasting models of grammar described in this book entail contrasting pictures of human nature; our closing chapter shows that grammatical theory is not value-neutral but has an ethical dimension.

The Oxford Handbook of Grammaticalization

The Oxford Handbook of Grammaticalization
Author: Heiko Narrog
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 952
Release: 2011-10-13
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 0191618055

This book presents the state of the art in research on grammaticalization, the process by which lexical items acquire grammatical function, grammatical items get additional functions, and grammars are created. Leading scholars from around the world introduce and discuss the core theoretical and methodological bases of grammaticalization, report on work in the field, and point to promising directions for new research. They represent every relevant theoretical perspective and approach. Research on grammaticalization and its role in linguistic change encompasses work on languages from every major linguistic family. Its results offer valuable insights for all theoretical frameworks, including generative, construction, and cognitive grammar, and relate to work in fields such as phonology, sociolinguistics, and language acquisition. The handbook is divided into five parts, of which the first two are devoted to theory and method, the third and fourth to work in linguistic domains, classes, and cateogories, and the fifth to case studies of grammaticalization in a range of languages. It will be an indispensable source of information and inspiration for all those who wish to know more about this fascinating and important field.

Grammaticalization and Pragmatics: Facts, Approaches, Theoretical Issues

Grammaticalization and Pragmatics: Facts, Approaches, Theoretical Issues
Author: Corinne Rossari
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 241
Release: 2012-11-02
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 900425319X

The studies collected in this volume deal with pragmatic factors involved in the evolution of grammatical or lexical forms or in the emergence of complex syntactic structures in various languages (Dutch, French, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Serbian and Spanish). They are set against the theoretical framework of grammaticalization. The main methodological tools are cross-linguistic contrastive analysis and diachronic perspective. The two main issues that emerge from these studies are the place of pragmatic factors in language change (input, output or setting/frame of the process) and the existence or otherwise of a prevailing mechanism for explaining change phenomena.

Grammaticalization of Arabic Prepositions and Subordinators

Grammaticalization of Arabic Prepositions and Subordinators
Author: Mohssen Esseesy
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 414
Release: 2010-08-18
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9004187634

Previous scholarship on Arabic prepositions typically has presented these as a static closed class of words. Inevitably, such a treatment does not take into account the diachronic development of prepositions into new functions in syntax, semantics and discourse. The present study applies grammaticalization theory to the analysis of prepositions and subordinators across varieties of Arabic. It goes beyond the traditional single-word focus and treats prepositions as parts of multiword complexes. Drawing upon a sizeable base of authentic historical and present-day Arabic data, it presents a rigorously descriptive and quantitative analysis of evolutionary processes involving prepositional forms and subordinators.

Up and Down the Cline--the Nature of Grammaticalization

Up and Down the Cline--the Nature of Grammaticalization
Author: Olga Fischer
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
Total Pages: 420
Release: 2004-01-01
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9789027229694

The basic idea behind this volume is to probe the nature of grammaticalization. Its contributions focus on the following questions: (i) In how far can grammaticalization be considered a universal diachronic process or mechanism of change and in how far is it conditioned by synchronic factors? (ii) What is the role of the speaker in grammaticalization? (iii) Does grammaticalization itself provide a cause for change or is it an epiphenomenon, i.e. a conglomeration of causal factors/mechanisms which elsewhere occur independently? (iv) If it is epiphenominal, how do we explain that similar pathways so often occur in known cases of grammaticalization? (v) Is grammaticalization unidirectional? (vi) What is the nature of the parameters guiding grammaticalization? The overall aim of the book is to enrich our understanding of what grammaticalization does or does not entail via detailed case studies in combination with theoretical and methodological discussions.

Grammaticalization from a Typological Perspective

Grammaticalization from a Typological Perspective
Author: Heiko Narrog
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 448
Release: 2018-10-18
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 0192515357

This volume explores the way in which grammaticalization processes - whereby lexical words eventually become markers of grammatical categories - converge and differ across various types of language. While grammaticalization at its core is a unidirectional phenomenon, in which the same pathways of change are replicated across languages, certain language types and language areas have distinct preferences with respect to what they grammaticalize and how. Previous work has principally addressed this question with specific reference to languages of Southeast and East Asia that do not seem to grammaticalize paradigms of categories in the same manner as Indo-European languages, or form extensive grammaticalization chains. This volume takes a broader approach and proceeds systematically area by area: specialists in the field address the processes of grammaticalization in languages of Africa, Europe, Asia and the Pacific, and the Americas, and in creole languages. The studies reveal a number of unique pathways of grammaticalization in each language area, as well as identifying the universal shared features of the phenomenon.

World Lexicon of Grammaticalization

World Lexicon of Grammaticalization
Author: Tania Kouteva
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 647
Release: 2019-08-08
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1107136245

Based on analysis of more than 1,000 languages, this volume reconstructs more than 500 processes of grammatical change in the languages of the world.