criticisms of grammaticalization

[Suzanne Kemmer]

Epiphenomenon:  A phenomenon that is a trivial and accidental byproduct 
of truly significant processes.
A useful term of opprobrium applied to certain phenomena by members of 
a dominant paradigm whose basic assumptions make it
difficult or impossible to account for such phenomena (without doing 
stated or unstated damage to the assumptions or the theory itself).
Usually dragged into service whenever fruitful generalizations and 
deeper understanding of the phenomena in a new paradigm
can no longer be ignored.

--Suzanne's Dictionary of Linguistic Codewords