The paper argues for a closer collaboration between corpus linguists and grammaticalisation theorists. Corpora have a number of benefits: First, they make it possible to study incipient or ongoing processes of grammaticalisation. Secondly, a quantitative-cum-qualitative analysis of corpus data makes it possible to shed light on important theoretical issues. Thirdly, corpora allow a better take on the textlinguistic, genre and discourse factors relevant to grammaticalisation.
The general points made are illustrated with data provided in the digitally accessible quotation base of the OED. On the basis of the evidence, I propose a distinction between two types of grammaticalisation, a “dynamic” one, which is reflected in massive shifts of frequency, and a “static” one, which can be characterised as the occasional use of lexical items in grammatical function.
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Diskin, Chloé
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Dong, Zhen & Fan Pan
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Flach, Susanne
2021. From movement into action to manner of causation: changes in argument mapping in the into-causative. Linguistics 59:1 ► pp. 247 ff.
2008. Typological and Computational Investigations of Spatial Perspective. In Modeling Communication with Robots and Virtual Humans [Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 4930], ► pp. 125 ff.
Loiseau, Sylvain
2011. Les faits statistiques comme objectivation ou comme interprétation : statistiques et modèles basés sur l'usage. Travaux de linguistique n°62:1 ► pp. 59 ff.
Loiseau, Sylvain
2015. Les différentes formes de la fréquence textuelle : proposition d’inventaire. Langages N° 197:1 ► pp. 5 ff.
Lorenz, David
2023. Could Be it’s Grammaticalization: Usage Patterns of the Epistemic Phrases (it) Could/Might Be. Journal of English Linguistics 51:2 ► pp. 133 ff.
Marttinen Larsson, Matti
2023. Modelling incipient probabilistic grammar change in real time: the grammaticalisation of possessive pronouns in European Spanish locative adverbial constructions. Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic Theory 19:2 ► pp. 177 ff.
McCafferty, Kevin
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McCafferty, Kevin
2016. Emigrant Letters: Exploring the ‘Grammar of the Conquered’. In Sociolinguistics in Ireland, ► pp. 218 ff.
Moore, Colette
2007. The Spread of Grammaticalized Forms. Journal of English Linguistics 35:2 ► pp. 117 ff.
Mourón‐Figueroa, Cristina
2008. A Semantic Analysis ofby‐Phrases in the York Cycle1. Studia Neophilologica 80:1 ► pp. 1 ff.
MÉNDEZ-NAYA, BELÉN
2008. On the history ofdownright. English Language and Linguistics 12:2 ► pp. 267 ff.
MÉNDEZ-NAYA, BELÉN
2008. Special issue on English intensifiers. English Language and Linguistics 12:2 ► pp. 213 ff.
2021. Grammaticalization and language contact in a discourse-pragmatic change in progress: The spread of innit in London English. Language in Society 50:5 ► pp. 723 ff.
2014. The emergence of English reflexive verbs: an analysis based on the Oxford English Dictionary. English Language and Linguistics 18:1 ► pp. 49 ff.
Stange, Ulrike
2022. So grown stale? On intensifying and emphasizing uses of so with verbs in present-day American English. American Speech► pp. 1 ff.
Stratton, James M.
2020. A diachronic analysis of the adjective intensifierwellfrom Early Modern English to Present Day English. Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique 65:2 ► pp. 216 ff.
2011. ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE IMMEDIATE FUTURE USE OF BE ABOUT TO IN THE HISTORY OF ENGLISH WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO LATE MODERN ENGLISH. ENGLISH LINGUISTICS 28:1 ► pp. 56 ff.
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