On some problem areas in grammaticalization studies*

Folia Linguistica, 2006

Functions of Language 19 (1): 135–144, 2012

Review of collective volume on grammaticalization (13 papers)

2020

Grammaticalization creates new grammatical exponents out of existing (lexical) ones. The standard assumption is that this gives rise to categorial reanalysis and lexical splits. The present paper argues that categorial reanalysis may not be so pervasive and that lexical splits may also be epiphenomenal. The set of empirical data involves the development of (Indo-European) complementizers out of pronouns. The main claim is that the innovative element (the complementizer) retains its nominal feature; thus strictly speaking, there is no categorial reanalysis, but a change in function and selectional requirements, allowing for an IP complement as well. As a complementizer, the pronoun is semantically weakened (the nominal core), and phonologically reduced (no prosodic unit). In its pronominal use, it may bind a variable (interrogative/relative) and defines a prosodic unit. What is understood as a lexical split then reduces to a case of different selectional requirements, followed by dif...

Nordic Journal of Linguistics, 2005

The second issue of Volume 29 (2006) of the Nordic Journal of Linguistics will be a special issue on grammaticalization.

Functions of Language, 2003

2008

The relevance of language contact for grammaticalization studies has recently attracted considerable attention among linguists and has been recognized as being more important than previously thought. "Canonical" grammaticalization processes have commonly been attributed to universal tendencies and internally motivated changes (Hopper and Traugott 1993, among others). This paper will try to demonstrate how the universal properties of grammaticalization processes can be reconciled with the necessary specificity of historical contact. In particular, a few changes within the European linguistic area, or Standard Average European, will be discussed. The European linguistic area is by now a well-established concept, but the mechanisms responsible for the areal distribution of features and in general the role of contact deserve to be investigated in more depth. It will be argued that in the cases examined here contact acts as a factor that triggers and accelerates grammaticalization. Moreover, "canonical" grammaticalization and contactinduced grammaticalization develop similarly and should be distinguished from cases of calquing of grammatical forms. As has already pointed out by Bisang, Himmelmann and Wiemer (2004:12), it can be concluded that language contact may reinforce grammaticalization processes.

Determinants of Grammatical Variation in English

This paper considers a number of deterministic conceptions that occupy a central position in current thinking about the process of grammaticalization, both in formal and functional theories of grammar. After a general discussion of the way the phenomenon of grammaticalization is dealt with from the point of view of grammar change and language change, and the explanatory value of these two rather different approaches, the paper turns to an examination of determinants considered to playa role in grammaticalization, i.e. the principle of unidirectionality, the idea of conceptual chains (grammaticalization as a semantically driven process), of grammaticalization as a mechanism or cause in itself, and the so-called parameters of grammaticalization. These assumptions will be critically examined with the hclp of two case studies, i.e. the grammaticalization of the infinitival marker to and of semimodal have to in the history of English. In addition, other factors will be lookcd at of an essentially synchronic nature, which may interact in this diachronic process, such as iconic factors and the synchronic state of the grammar/language. Both of these play an important part in the way grammaticalization proceeds. The paper concludes that certain tendencies can indeed be discerned in grammaticalization, but that the process is first and foremost steered by the shape of the synchronic language system. The conclusion also offers some thoughts on how the synchronic factors that steer grammaticalization may yet set off a longterm development through the impiicational properties of the structure that is grammaticalizing.

I discuss here various ways in which one might devise a counting heuristic for gram-maticalization with an eye to testing the quantificational claims that have been made against specific implementations of such a heuristic. More specifically, I address the question of grammaticalization as a phenomenon of individuals versus a phenomenon of speech communities versus a phenomenon of languages. Similarly, I hope to show, once the individual versus group issue is dealt with, that by adopting Haspelmath's (2004) definition of grammaticalization as the tightening of internal dependencies, and thus a weakening of boundaries, between elements, we are in a better position to undertake a census since linguists have developed a reasonable idea of the sort of grammatical boundaries that need to be posited (word boundaries , clitic boundaries, morpheme boundaries, phoneme-to-phoneme transitions, etc.). Further, this view generalizes to offer a solution to the problematic notion of gradience in grammaticalization – cf. Kuryłowicz's famous definition of grammat-icalization as taking in movement from " less " to " more " grammatical – since linguists have long posited a hierarchy of boundary strength that can be appealed to.

2017

The origin of comitative adverbs in Japhug Guillaume Jacques 3 Copulas originating from the imperative of 'see/look' verbs in Mande languages Denis Creissels 4 Multiple argument marking in Bantoid: From syntheticity to analyticity Larry M. Hyman 5 Grammaticalization of participles and gerunds in Indo-Aryan: Preterite, future, infinitive Annie Montaut 6 On the grammaticalization of demonstratives in Hoocąk and other Siouan languages Johannes Helmbrecht 7 Grammaticalization of tense/aspect/mood marking in Yucatec Maya Christian Lehmann 8 Diachrony and typology of Slavic aspect: What does morphology tell us?

Folia Linguistica, 2000

A grammaticalization process, by which an item shifts from lexicon to grammar, is by definition a cline or a continuum. Consequently, items undergoing grammaticalization processes can occupy different positions on the cline between its two extremes. The main claim we want to argue for in this thematic issue is that the same idea of gradation can be extended to language typology, by showing that, within a language family, comparable grammaticalization phenomena can be at the outset or on-going in one language and have reached a stage further down the cline in another language, or even that grammaticalization phenomena present in one language may be absent in the other one. Thus, with respect to Romance, several authors, such as

This collective volume focuses on the crucial role of formal evidence in recognizing and explaining instances of grammaticalization. It addresses the hitherto neglected issue of system-internal factors steering grammaticalization and also revisits formal recognition criteria such as Lehmann and Hopper's parameters of grammaticalization. The articles investigate developments of such phenomena as modal auxiliaries, attitudinal markers, V1-conditionals, nominalizers, and pronouns, using data from a wide range of languages and (in some cases) from diachronic corpora. In the process, they explore finer mechanisms of grammaticalization such as modification of coding means, structural and semantic analogy, changes in frequency and prosody, and shifts in collocational and grammatical distribution. The volume is of particular interest to historical linguists working on grammaticalization, and general linguists working on the interface between syntax, semantics and pragmatics, as well as that between synchrony and diachrony.