SOME RECENT TRENDS IN GRAMMATICALIZATION

• Published in: Annual review of anthropology Vol. 25; no. 1; pp. 217 - 236
• Main Author: Hopper, Paul J
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Palo Alto, CA 94303-0139 Annual Reviews 01-01-1996; 4139 El Camino Way, P.O. Box 10139 Annual Reviews Inc; USA Annual Reviews, Inc
• Subjects: Changes; Communication; Discourse; Discourse context; emergent grammar; Etymology; Grammar; grammatical change; Grammaticalization; Historical linguistics; Language; language change; Lexicon; Linguistic typology; Linguistics; Pragmatics; semantic change; Theoretical typology; Verbs; Word order; Words
• ISSN: 0084-6570; 1545-4290
• DOI: 10.1146/annurev.anthro.25.1.217

Grammaticalization-the transformation of lexical items and phrases
into grammatical forms-has been the focus of considerable study. Two
chief directions can be identified. The first involves etymology and the
taxonomy of possible changes in language, in which semantic and cognitive
accounts of words and categories of words are considered to explain the
changes. The second involves the discourse contexts within which
grammaticalization occurs. Some researchers have questioned the standard idea
of a stable synchronic a priori grammar in which linguistic structure is
distinct from discourse, and have sought to replace this with the idea of
"emergent grammar" in which repetitions of various kinds in
discourse lead to perpetual structuration.