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Grammaticalization meets Construction Grammar
Edited by Evie Coussé, Peter Andersson and Joel Olofsson
[Constructional Approaches to Language 21] 2018
► pp. 137–168

Reduction or expansion? A bit of both

A case study on the development of German degree modifiers

This paper presents a diachronic analysis of the German quantifier/degree-modifier constructions ein bisschen (‘a bitDIM’) and ein wenig (‘a little’). On the basis of data from two historical corpora, we examine to what extent these constructions followed a grammaticalization path comparable to the one Traugott (e.g. 2008a) observed for their English counterparts. Quantitative analyses on their gradual context expansion are combined with qualitative analyses on potential bridging contexts for reanalysis. Their combined histories suggest that the older German modifiers may have served as attractor sets for an increasingly strengthened mid-level quantifier/degree-modifier schema, promoting the emergence of younger modifiers. These observations stress the crucial role that network links between constructions can play in grammaticalization.

Keywords: degree modifiers, analogy, paradigmatization, low-frequency grammaticalization, German
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2. Reduction and expansion in a construction grammar framework for grammaticalization
  • 3.English quantifier/degree-modifier constructions
  • 4.German quantifier/degree-modifier constructions: An overview
  • 5.Studying the German degree modifiers: Corpus data and methods
  • 6.Quantitative corpus analyses
    • 6.1Token frequency
    • 6.2Parts of speech modified by the constructions
    • 6.3 Determiner variation
  • 7.Bridging contexts and motivations for innovation
  • 8.Layering, attractor sets and constructional levels
  • 9.Conclusion and outlook
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Corpora and sources
  • References
Published online: 23 May 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/cal.21.c6
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