Degree Of Grammaticalization Research Articles

Nominal Classification in Uitoto

This paper contributes to the discussion of Amazonian systems of nominal classification by providing the first description of the system of Uitoto, spoken in the Colombian Amazon. Two gender markers and a set of more than 100 classifiers, most of them denoting physical properties, are described with respect to their distribution and eventual patterns of agreement, their degree of grammaticalization, and their discursive function. Special attention is given to the relation between classifiers and nouns and to the formation of pro‐forms with classifiers, stressing the importance of classifiers in the lexical genesis of the language.

Aspect markers grammaticalized from verbs in Kamas

The article presents some results of research into aspectual auxiliaries of Kamas (Southern Samoyed; extinct). Code-copied from Turkic, Kamas started to use verbs with salient aspectuality to modify the aspectual meaning content of another verb or the representation of a whole state of affairs. The formal means by which this modification could take place was a converb construction, in which the modified main verb figured as the non-finite verb form (the converb). At the end of the grammaticalization process, some of the auxiliaries ended up as suffixes. Within Kamas sources from the middle of the 18th to the beginning of the 20th century, the various degrees of grammaticalization are documented. The relevant grammaticalization processes are semantic reduction, fixation and formal reduction; the first two processes can be understood as prerequisites for the third process which puts an end to the coexistence of grammaticalized and non-grammaticalized items. The main Kamas auxiliaries are listed and, according to their function, grouped into non-transformative vs. initial-, final-, and momentaneous-transformative auxiliaries.

Gramaticalització i funció discursiva dels verbs de percepció

This paper deals with Catalan perception verbs reanalyzed as discourse markers. The study focuses on the forms «aviam, a veure» (derived from veure ‘to see’), «miri» (from mirar ‘to look’), and «escolti» (from escoltar ‘to listen’), in a corpus of electoral debate. The research shows the interrelation between semantic and morphosyntactic features, on the one hand, and between these formal aspects and the pragmatic functions of the markers, on the other hand. The analysis highlights that perception verbs as discourse markers indicate power and politeness relationships among the participants in political debates, and this use is closely related to their origin as (active/passive, visual/auditory) verbs of perception and the different degree of grammaticalization that they exhibit as discourse markers.

The comitative/conjunctive preposition na in Chathu (Pare), a Bantu language of Tanzania

The article discusses the problem of analysis of the element na in Chathu (Pare), a Bantu language of Tanzania. This element functions both as a preposition with a range of meanings and as a conjunction. A similar element with the same problem of analysis exists in most Bantu languages, and, in fact, the phenomenon of a word meaning both ‘and’ and ‘with’ is extremely common in other African languages as well. The article presents an overview of the semantics of na and proposes the most likely tines of semantic development that link the various meaning senses. After a discussion of the agreement phenomena when na is used in the conjunctive meaning, the conclusion is reached that na is a preposition in alt of its uses. A certain degree of grammaticalization has occurred in the possessive use of na.

The establishment of the classifier system and the grammaticalization of the morphosyntactic particle de in Chinese

This paper analyzes the causal relationship between the establishment of the classifier system and the grammaticalization of the morphosyntactic particle de in the history of Chinese. By doing so, we try to answer a question relevant to grammaticalization theory: why should lexical items which are equally suitable for certain grammatical domain develop into morphological markers for that grammatical domain with different functions? We argue that grammaticalization is subject to the influence of the overall structural change of a language in a particular period of time. A language at different times may possess different optimal structures which serve the model triggering grammaticalization via analogy. An optimal structure shapes the path and degree of grammaticalization. Consequently, the grammatical markers innovated at different times for the same grammatical domain may behave differently.

Grammaticalization Theory and the Particle bi/by in Bulgarian, Macedonian and Russian

1. INTRODUCTION This paper examines the status of the modal particle1 bi/by in three Slavic languages: Bulgarian, Macedonian and Russian, with a focus on the Russian data. The evolution of this modal particle in Slavic constitutes in many respects a canonical example of grammaticalization. A lexical item, in this case the verb to be in the aorist tense, was used with the l-participle to form an irrealis mood.2 Over time, in some of the Slavic languages, this auxiliary has lost inflectional properties and become an invariant particle. This shift from lexical item to grammatical form is accompanied also by increased restriction in syntactic position. Such changes are typical of the grammaticalization process. The comparison of Bulgarian, Macedonian and Russian data is valuable for two reasons. First, the Russian and South Slavic data illustrate some of the possible range in both rate and type of change involved in grammaticalization. Second, with this varied data before us we can address two frequently posed questions in work on grammaticalization: 1) What motivates grammaticalization?, and 2) What accounts for differences among languages in rate and type of change? This study suggests that answers to both of these questions are to be found in an appreciation of the structural differences among these three closely related languages. 2. WHAT IS GRAMMATICALIZATION? The term grammaticalization has primarily been understood to refer to a diachronic process, i.e., the process by which lexical or content items assume functions more grammatical in nature (or grammatical forms become even more so). However, much recent scholarship views grammaticalization from a synchronic perspective as well.3 While appreciating the historical nature of grammaticalization-the process-the focus in such works is on the results of this process at a given point in a language's development. Primarily synchronic studies, informed by the understanding that inherent features of the grammaticalization process such as different rates of change and less than complete applicability of a change, help us appreciate that what is evidenced synchronically at any given point may be some ambiguous or recalcitrant data. Such work underscores the essentially noncomplete nature of grammars and offers an explanation for those areas in a language's grammar which are in flux. The diachronic and synchronic approaches suggest different but interrelated models for analyzing data. The diachronic perspective is concerned primarily with how the historical process of change is conceptualized. The model usually employed is the cline of grammaticality, for example: content item > grammatical word > clitic > inflectional affix (Hopper and Traugott 1993: 7) The synchronic approach seeks to establish parameters for assessing the degree to which a given form in the contemporary language is grammaticalized. Measures to assess the degree of grammaticalization include such factors as decategorialization: lack of inflections associated with a particular category; recategorialization: reinterpretation as member of a different grammatical class; and lack of syntactic autonomy. Clearly these two analytical frameworks are linked. The cline of grammaticality posits that changes associated with the process of grammaticalization follow a path of predictable morphological developments. Synchronic measures of grammaticalization such as decategorialization and lack of syntactic autonomy can be shown to correlate with points along this historical continuum. For example, the position of a clitic is subject to greater syntactic restrictions than that of a grammatical word. This paper considers grammaticalization first and foremost from a synchronic perspective. I am not concerned so much with the evolution of the bi/by forms, but rather with their current status. There are two stages to this analysis. First I assess the degree to which the modal form bi/by is grammaticalized in contemporary Bulgarian, Macedonian, and Russian. …

Classifiers, Quantifiers and Class Nouns in Hmong

Four operations of nominal concretization are crucial for presenting a typology of classifier languages: individualization, classification, relationalization (possession), and referentialization. The first three of these operations are at work in the Hmong classifier system. The development of classifiers is described in connection with the degree of grammaticalization which will be measured by the three parameters of [± exact], [± entity], and cohesion. These parameters will be arranged in a three-dimensional continuum (cf. Fig. II.) which leads to the following evolutional steps of increasing grammaticalization: nouns, class nouns, quantifiers, intrinsic quantifiers (to be defined in the present article), and classifiers.

Semantics of explicator compound verbs in south Asian languages

The explicator compound verb (ECV) construction has been a focus of attention since its recognition as a major areal feature of south Asian languages. An ECV construction refers to a sequence of two verbs VI and V2, in which the main verb of the sentence, generally VI in SOV languages, is followed by another verb, i.e. V2, which is delexicalized in the construction. It is possible to group all previous discussions on the topic into two categories. One, the analyses of the forms and associated meanings of the construction in individual languages of the area. Two. the consideration of broader issues such as, for instance, the common or most general function of the construction as such, comparisons of explicators across languages in terms of their forms, meanings, numbers and frequencies of usage, selectional constraints operating on combinations of main verbs and explicators and degrees of grammaticalization. The present paper is an attempt towards making a comparative areal survey of the ECV construction in terms of semantic typology. With this end in view, explicator meanings are grouped into three major types and further subtypes, with illustrations to show that each of the larger types and at least one of the subtypes is represented by all languages of the area that have ECV constructions. Also, characteristic traits are identified in the case of different language families with reference to both the actual lexical items used as explicators as well as their meanings. The study is based on representative data from languages belonging to all four language families in India: Dravidian. Indo-Aryan, Tibeto-Burman and Austro-Asiatic.