Publications

Publication details [#19505]

Ramat, Anna Giacalone and Paul J. Hopper, eds. 1998. The Limits of Grammaticalization. (Typological Studies in Language 37). John Benjamins. vi + 307 pp.
Publication type
Book – edited volume
Publication language
English
ISBN
90 272 2935 X

Annotation

In recent years, a debate has arisen over how to constrain the term grammaticalization theoretically. Is grammaticalization to be distinguished from “lexicalization”, the creation and fixing of new words out of older patterns of compounding? If so, how is the line to be drawn between a form that is grammatical and one that is lexical? Should the term “grammaticalization” be extended to the study of the origins of grammatical constructions in general? If so, it will have to include broader issues such as word order change and the reanalysis of phrases. What principles govern these processes? Is grammaticalization a unidirectional event, or can change occur in the reverse direction? The authors of the papers in this volume approach these questions from a variety of data types, including historical texts, creoles, and a typologically broad sample of modern and ancient languages.