Grammaticalization

Stokoe, W.C. WCSTOKOE at GALLUA.GALLAUDET.EDU
Sat Oct 28 13:59:14 UTC 1995


Probably I should not be on funknet at all, for I think gzn is a process/
product in the thinking of grammarians and linguists, a class or classes
that thinks of language in more rigid formulizations than do the majority
of language users. Some users use language more imaginatively than others
and some of the innovations die aborning, others last for a time in a small
coterie, still others get into general use. The process is actual language
use by real people. Of course it is good science to have an accurate and
complete description but grammar may be an abstraction after the fact, grammatical is a coinage or derivation of grammar, made into a verb by the affix -ize,
made into a noun by changing -ize to -ization--so perhaps grammaticalization
is neither process nor product but just an artifact made by linguists.
If this offends, please unsubscribe.
WCStokoe



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