Grammaticalization

In historical linguistics, grammaticalisation (also known as grammaticisation or grammatisation) is a process of semantic change by which a content word (lexical morpheme) changes into a function word or grammatical affix.

Common grammaticalisation chains include the evolution of nouns (such as positional or body part words) to prepositions, prepositions to inflectional affixes on nouns (noun declension); and the evolution of nouns to pronouns, pronouns to inflectional affixes on verbs (verbal conjugation); and finally the disappearance of those inflectional affixes altogether. At this point new nouns may start evolving into new inflections.

Hypotheses

A traditional explanation proposed by linguists is that language change involves imperfect language acquisition by new generations of speakers. While this usually occurs in the first few years of a child's language acquisition period, the process can occur later on. For example, the Japanese honorific system, which historically has been learned upon reaching adulthood , has gone through repeated cycles of grammaticalization.

However, it is now commonly proposed that grammaticalization is a function of frequency of use: It is hypothesized that words found together with a high frequency come to be cognitively processed as single units, and that these units then evolve as individual words. For example, the highly frequent expression [be] going to [verb] as a future marker has evolved into [be] gonna [verb], especially in casual speech, while the word go as a main verb is unaffected by this change. Likewise, the most common form of be used with this expression, first-person singular I'm gonna [verb], have contracted to I'm'onna [verb], whereas the other persons have not done this.

The unidirectionality hypothesis proposes that these chains only go in one direction, that for example inflectional affixes do not give rise to prepositions or pronouns.

Mechanisms

There are four related mechanisms that are involved in grammaticalisation:

• Desemanticisation — The broadening or abstraction of meaning or content
• Extension — Use in new contexts.
• Decategorialisation — Loss of morphosyntactic properties
• Erosion — Loss of phonetic substance

Examples

• In English, the word "go" became a change-of-state marker (e.g. "He went home" vs. "He went mad") and a future tense maerker ("I am going to the store" vs. "I am going to eat", contracted to "I'm gonna eat").
• In French, "ici" ("here") became a demonstrative marker, e.g. "Il est ici" ("He is here") and "Cet homme-ci" ("This man-PROXIMATE"). Also in French, as the verbal agreement system eroded, the use of subject pronouns became obligatory, and these pronouns are now clitics and can no longer be used on their own.

References

• Heine, B. and Kuteva, T. (2002) World Lexicon of Grammaticalization, Cambridge University Press
• Hopper, Paul J., and Traugott, Elizabeth C. (1993) Grammaticalization. Cambridge University Press.
• Heine, Bernd; Claudi, Ulrike; and Hünnemeyer, Friederike (1991) Grammaticalization: A Conceptual Framework. University of Chicago Press.