Abstract
Lexicalization and grammaticalization are two of the most important processes in linguistic change (Laurel and Traugott, 2005; Hopper and Traugott, 2003). Spoken Standard Tibetan (SST) offers an example of both these processes applying sequentially to the phrase slob sbyong byed, 'to study; to learn.' This phrase is an instance of a full verb byed becoming a light verb (grammaticalization) after compounding (lexicalization). In Tibetan, three light verbs: byed, rgyag and gtong compete lexically. This lexical competition can be treated under the Lexical Diffusion Theory proposed by Wang (1969; 1979).
Highlights
Grammaticalization is a process in which “lexical items and constructions come in certain linguistic contexts to serve grammatical functions and, once grammaticalized, continue to develop new grammatical functions” (Hopper & Traugott 2003, 231-3)[2]
Grammaticalization is the creation of a new grammatical morpheme and a new construction out of an old construction
Exemplar representations “allow specific information about instances of use to be retained in representation” and “provide a natural way to allow frequency of use to determine the strength of exemplars.”
Summary
Light verb construction is composed by two verbs, the major verb is the main semantic and grammatical vehicle and the other is minor in semantic and grammatical. Tibetan adds the light verb byed to provide an active sense (Jäschke 1883:43)[12]. A light verb construction (Butt 1993[13], Bickel and Nichols 2001[14], Tantos 2008[15], Seiss 2009[16], Butt 2010[17]) modulates a given event predication, but does not supply its own event. It may provide additional information about event details such as what, who, or how the event occurs. Most verbs in Lhasa Tibetan are multisyllabic forms composed of a predicative noun and a light verb. As the database shows that byed (as 1027 tokens) and rgyag (as 569 tokens) are the most frequently used according to the word-occurrence
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