Chapter published in:
Category Change from a Constructional Perspective
Edited by Kristel Van Goethem, Muriel Norde, Evie Coussé and Gudrun Vanderbauwhede
[Constructional Approaches to Language 20] 2018
► pp. 93–118

Grammaticalization, host-class expansion and category change

| University of Gothenburg
It is well-known that grammaticalization involves category change. The development of a lexical element into a grammatical marker more specifically entails a category shift from an open lexical class (e.g. full verbs) to a closed grammatical class (e.g. auxiliary verbs). This article claims that host-class expansion, typically accompanying the process of grammaticalization, can also be considered as category change. Host-class expansion is more specifically category-internal change in the open class of elements that a grammaticalizing element collocates with. This article analyzes the internal structure of these open classes, making use of insights from construction grammar and prototype theory. The theoretical framework is substantiated by means of two case studies of host-class expansion in Dutch and Spanish. The main findings of this study are that (a) the open class of elements associated with a grammaticalizing element is internally organized as a prototype category, and (b) host-class expansion proceeds away from the prototypical core of the open class.
Keywords: host-class expansion, grammaticalization, prototype theory, perfect construction, binominal quantifier construction
Published online: 22 March 2018
https://doi.org/10.1075/cal.20.04cou
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