Everything about Grammaticalization
Process of words becoming part of a language grammar
Grammaticalization is a linguistic process in which words change from representing objects or actions to serving grammatical functions. Grammaticalization can involve content words, such as nouns and verbs, developing into new function words that express grammatical relationships among other words in a sentence. This may happen rather than speakers deriving such new function words from existing bound, inflectional constructions. For example, the Old English verb willan 'to want', 'to wish' has become the Modern English auxiliary verb will, which expresses intention or simply futurity. Some concepts are often grammaticalized; others, such as evidentiality, less frequently. Wikipedia →
🧭 Start here: a 6-step reading path
- Read the overview: GrammaticalizationA 5-minute orientation
- Skim a recent paper: The pre-front field in spoken german and its relevance as a grammaticalization positionInfluential work since 2022
- Pick up a classic book: Meaning change in grammaticalizationThe most-reprinted book on the subject
- Read the landmark paper: Why is grammaticalization irreversible?Cited 287 times
- Go sideways: MorphemeA closely related topic
- Go sideways: AffixA closely related topic
📖 Definitions
Noun The process of making grammatical.
Noun The process of language change by which a word or morpheme is reduced to more of a grammeme than a lexeme, for example the reduction of a content word representing an object or action (a noun or verb) to a clitic.
🏆 Landmark papers (most cited)
Why is grammaticalization irreversible?
The Use of like as a Marker of Reported Speech and Thought: A Case of Grammaticalization in Progress
On discourse markers: Grammaticalization, pragmaticalization, or something else?
Pragmaticalization (defined) as grammaticalization of discourse functions
A Usage-Based Theory of Grammatical Status and Grammaticalization
On contact-induced grammaticalization
Does Grammaticalization Need Reanalysis?
Grammaticalization vs. Reanalysis: a Semantic- Pragmatic Account of Functional Change in Grammar
🆕 Influential since 2022
The pre-front field in spoken german and its relevance as a grammaticalization position
The grammaticalization of evidentiality in English
From grammaticalization to Diachronic Construction Grammar
Grammaticalization as Conventionalization of Discursively Secondary Status: Deconstructing the Lexical–Grammatical Continuum
The links between evidentiality, modality, and grammaticalization
📚 Books worth reading
Meaning change in grammaticalizationRegine Eckardt · 2006
ReflexivesZygmunt Frajzyngier, Traci S. Curl · 1999
The limits of grammaticalizationAnna Giacalone Ramat, Paul J. Hopper · 1998- 📕Avertiv und ProximativSarah Schwellenbach · 2019
Grammaticalization at workMatti Rissanen, Merja Kytö · 1997
Studies on grammaticalizationElisabeth Verhoeven · 2008- 📕Grammaticalization Scenarios. Areal Patterns and Cross-Linguistic VariationWalter Bisang, Andrej Malchukov · 2020
New reflections on grammaticalizationIlse Wischer, Gabriele Diewald · 2002
Ranked by number of editions on Open Library, a rough measure of how lasting a book is.
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