Overview

This volume contains a selection of papers on grammaticalization from a broad perspective. Some of the papers focus on basic concepts in grammaticalization research such as the concept of 'grammar' as the endpoint of grammaticalization processes, erosion, (uni)directionality, the relation between grammaticalization and constructions, subjectification, and the relation between grammaticalization and analogy. Other papers shed a critical light on grammaticalization as an explanatory parameter in language change. New case studies of micro-processes of grammaticalization complete the selection. The empirical evidence for (and against) grammaticalization comes from diverse domains: subject control, clitics, reciprocal markers, pronouns and agreement markers, gender markers, auxiliaries, aspectual categories, intensifying adjectives and determiners, and pragmatic markers. The languages covered include English and its varieties, German, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, French, Slavonic languages, and Turkish. The book will be valuable to scholars working on grammaticalization and language change as well as to those interested in individual languages.

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9789027205865

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Reviews

This volume contains a valuable collection of strong contributions to the field of diachronic linguistics, and more specifically to the area of grammaticalization. In addressing issues of old standing as well as recent ones, it features a wide variety of research topics as well as research methods, such as corpus research, cross-linguistic sampling, field work, and oral and written language testing. Once can be confident that its principle of skilful empirical observation feeding into linguistic theory, and the combination of qualitative and quantitative analyses of language, will spark a range of stimulating new studies in the field. -- An Van Iinden, University of Leuven, in Functions of Language Vol. 19:1 (2012), pag. 135-145

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