Definition
Grammaticalization is a linguistic process in which words change from representing objects or actions to serving grammatical functions. Grammaticalization can involve content words, such as nouns and verbs, developing into new function words that express grammatical relationships among other words in a sentence. This may happen rather than speakers deriving such new function words from existing bound, inflectional constructions. For example, the Old English verb willan 'to want', 'to wish' has become the Modern English auxiliary verb will, which expresses intention or simply futurity. Some concepts are often grammaticalized; others, such as evidentiality, less frequently.
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AbessiveAffixAfrican languagesAfro-Asiatic languagesAnette RosenbachAntoine MeilletAuxiliary verbBernd HeineBleachingBound morphemeChristian Lehmann (Linguist)Cline (linguistics)CliticCoding (social sciences)Compound verbContent wordDe-categorializationDemonstrativeDiminutiveDiscourse analysisDisyllabicElizabeth C. TraugottElizabeth TraugottEnglish verbEssiveEvidentialityFrantišek LichtenberkFranz BoppFrench languageFunction wordFuture tenseGenitiveGeorg von der GabelentzGerman languageGrammarGrammaticalGrammatical functionGrammatical markerGrammatical numberGrammatical wordGrammaticalityHenri WittmannHiraganaHistorical linguisticsIndo-European languagesIndo-European studiesInflectionInflectionalIrish GaelicItalian languageJames A. MatisoffJames MatisoffJean AitchisonJerzy KurylowiczJoan BybeeJohn HaimanJohn ReighardKanjiKarl BrugmannKate BurridgeLanguage SciencesLessauLexemeLexical (semiotics)Lexical itemsLexicalizationLexiconLinguistic descriptionLinguistic universalsLinguisticsLyle CampbellMarker (linguistics)Mechthild RehMetaphorMetonymicMiddle EnglishModal verbModern EnglishMonosyllabic languageMorphemeMorphology (linguistics)MorphosyntacticNatural languageNeo-grammariansNorthern SamiNounOld Church SlavonicOld EnglishOlga FischerPaul J. HopperPennsylvania German languagePersonal pronounsPhonemePhoneticPhonologicalPhonologyPrinciple of least effortProto-Indo-European languageReduplicationRelative clauseScientia (Italian journal)Semantic bleachingSemanticsSentence connectivesSerbo-CroatianShall and willSino-Tibetan languagesSpanish languageStress (linguistics)SyllableSynchronic analysisSyntacticSyntaxTalmy GivonTania KutevaTri-consonantal rootUnidirectionality hypothesisUniformitarianVerbWei-Heng ChenWilhelm von HumboldtWord class
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