Abstract
Polish in the light of grammaticalization theoryThe paper is concerned with grammaticalization, a type of language change whereby lexical items, in specifi contexts, come to serve grammatical functions, and grammatical items acquire new grammatical functions. The aim is twofold: to shed light at the main properties of grammaticalization, and to demonstrate its applicability to Polish data. Some prominent examples in Polish are discussed: the grammaticalization of modals, imperative and avertive constructions. The paper closes with a non-exhaustive list of leads for further research into grammaticalization in Polish.
Highlights
The paper is concerned with grammaticalization, a type of language change whereby lexical items, in specific contexts, come to serve grammatical functions, and grammatical items acquire new grammatical functions
The present article aims at giving an overview of recent developments of the theoretical frameworks subsumed under the heading ‘Grammaticalization Theory’ on the one hand, and at showing ways of possible applications of this framework to the analysis of both synchronic and diachronic data from Polish on the other
Under the term gzn we understand a type of language change whereby lexical items and constructions, in specific contexts, come to be used as grammatical, or whereby grammatical items acquire new grammatical functions (Hopper and Traugott 2003, p. 1)
Summary
The present article aims at giving an overview of recent developments of the theoretical frameworks subsumed under the heading ‘Grammaticalization Theory’ on the one hand, and at showing ways of possible applications of this framework to the analysis of both synchronic and diachronic data from Polish on the other. Under the term gzn we understand a type of language change whereby lexical items and constructions, in specific contexts, come to be used as grammatical, or whereby grammatical items acquire new grammatical functions The changes in form that take place in gzn come as a result of the process of automatization of frequently occurring strings of linguistic elements Bybee 2003a) This group of gzn mechanisms consists of cliticization and affixation (both instances of coalescence) and phonological erosion on the one hand, and the change related to the semantics of the elements filling the subject and complement slots within the argument structure of a gram on the other. Given that gzn does not have to proceed all the way, i.e. the development may be ‘frozen’ at some point (see e.g. Hopper and Traugott 2003; Hansen 2004a), some mechanisms may not at all be involved
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