15.2833, Review: Ling Theories: Hopper & Traugott (2003)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-15-2833. Mon Oct 11 2004. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 15.2833, Review: Ling Theories: Hopper & Traugott (2003)                                                                                                                                                                 

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1)
Date: 09-Oct-2004
From: Ioana Dascalu < ioana_dascalu2000 at yahoo.ca >
Subject: Grammaticalization: Second Edition 
 

	
-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Mon, 11 Oct 2004 01:40:13
From: Ioana Dascalu < ioana_dascalu2000 at yahoo.ca >
Subject: Grammaticalization: Second Edition 
 
AUTHOR: Hopper, Paul J.; & Traugott, Elizabeth Closs
TITLE: Grammaticalization, Second Edition
SERIES: Cambridge Textbooks in Linguistics
PUBLISHER: Cambridge University Press
YEAR: 2003
Announced at http://test.linguistlist.org/issues/14/14-2163.html


Ioana-Ruxandra Dascalu, University of Craiova, Romania

OVERVIEW

This is a monograph about grammaticalization, which analyzes the 
process from both a historical and synchronic perspective (involving 
pragmatics and syntax), emphasizing the major mechanisms of linguistic 
variation and change . The authors are Paul J. Hopper, Paul Mellon 
Distinguished Professor of Humanities at Carnegie Mellon University and 
Elizabeth Closs Traugott, Professor of Linguistics and English at 
Stanford University. The first edition of the book was published in 
1993.

The authors propose a revised and updated second edition of a 
successful book Grammaticalization, which deals with a process  of 
historical as well as synchronic linguistics "whereby lexical items and 
constructions come in certain linguistic contents to serve grammatical 
functions, and, once grammaticalized, continue to develop new 
grammatical functions" (p. xv); they encounter cases of lexical words, 
that become auxiliaries, of nominal adpositions that become case 
markers, when, as an evolution of the grammatical forms, the lexical 
character of a lexeme turns into a grammatical one.

The first part of the book (Chapter I Some preliminaries, pp. 1-17 and 
Chapter II The History of Grammaticalization, pp. 19-38) appeals to 
definitions and terms with an important role in grammaticalization: a 
crucial distinction is made between content words, that is to say words 
with lexical properties and function words, that accomplish grammatical 
functions; the transformation of a lexical word into a grammatical one 
represents the process of grammaticalization itself.

According to the role of the grammatical forms, they classify words 
into several categories: words with phonetic and syntactic 
independence, derivational forms, clitics, items which are constrained 
to occur next to an autonomous word, in a cline, that is to say a 
pathway from content items to grammatical words, to clitics and 
inflectional affixes, in an evolution from less grammatical to more 
grammatical elements.

After a stage-setting introduction, the authors sketch a historical 
profile of the studies concerning grammaticalizations, from Humboldt's 
linguistic typologies (isolating, agglutinative, inflectional or 
synthetic languages) to the first denomination of the process in 
Meillet's L'évolution des formes grammaticales (1912) and the most 
recent researches from the 60s to the 90s, in Hock's Principles of 
Historical Linguistics, Givon's On Understanding Grammar, Lehmann's 
Thoughts on Grammaticalization and Traugott and Heine's Approaches to 
Grammaticalization. Lehmann establishes a series of parameters of 
grammaticalization, both on the paradigmatic (weight, cohesiveness, 
freedom of selection) and on the syntagmatic axis (scope/structural 
size of a construction, degree of bounding, degree to which elements 
may be moved) (p. 30).

The next chapters (Chapter III, Mechanisms: reanalysis and analogy, pp. 
39-70; and Chapter IV, Pragmatic factors, pp. 71-98) discuss the causes 
and mechanisms of linguistic change, namely reanalysis, as a process in 
which old structures are replaced by new ones (e.g. when the hearer 
understands a form to have a structure and a meaning that are different 
from those of the speaker, p. 50) and analogy, which refers to the 
attraction of extant forms to already existing constructions (p. 63). 
Pragmatic factors are discussed together with facts of language 
acquisition, as well as metaphoric cognitive processes, such as the 
description of space in terms of an object or of time in terms of 
space.

Another controversial issue related to grammaticalization is the 
hypothesis of unidirectionality (Chapter V, pp. 99-139) which depicts 
it as an one-way phenomenon, containing two sides: specialization in 
use, divergence (when one form preserves its characteristics, while the 
other becomes more grammatical) and renewal, when old forms are renewed 
by new ones. The conceptual frame that describes all these processes is 
called layering or variability. There are however linguists, who claim 
that grammaticalization is not a irreversible process; they encounter 
opposite phenomena like degrammaticalization, lexicalization and 
decliticization. (see Ch. Lehmann 2.3.).

Chapter VI, Clause-internal morphological changes, pp. 140-174; and 
Chapter VII, Grammaticalization across clauses, pp. 173-211, account 
for the properties of clitics, as well as for the ways of linking 
clauses.

Cliticization is a particular case of grammaticalization, whereby 
independent elements become bound elements like clitics and affixes, 
that attach to accentuated lexical items (e.g. lat. 'que' gr. 'de' or 
the development of clause linkers out of nouns, verbs, adverbs, 
pronouns). The evolution from clitics to inflections (lexical item > 
clitic > affix) is called morphologization, events which transform an 
autonomous unbound lexical item into an affix (e.g. the 
grammaticalization of the Latin form -mente into an adverbial suffix in 
the Romance languages). According to their position, clitics are 
divided into three categories: phrasal clitics (such as possessive 
pronouns, auxiliaries), proclitics (which are attached to the following 
element) and enclitics (which are attached at the end of the stressed 
lexical item). The development of clitics is followed by the evolution 
of clause linkers (in parataxis, hypotaxis and subordination), with 
emphasis upon clause linkage markers and their sources in nouns, verbs, 
adverbs, pronouns (pp. 184 ff.)

The final part of the book (Chapter VIII, Grammaticalization in 
situations of extreme language contact, pp. 212-230, focuses upon the 
study of grammaticalization in language contact, with emphasis on the 
characteristics of pidgins as mixed languages, derived from the 
superstrate language and on the features of creoles as more complex 
languages from the syntactic point of view; they offer interesting 
results for the conceptualization of linguistic progression, due to 
internal factors (such as child acquisition) and external factors (such 
as language contact). A series of features are enumerated, concerning 
tense marking, articles and determiners, Tense-Mood-Aspect system.

CONCLUSION

This is an introductory reading indispensable for all those who study 
historical linguistics. The handbook gathers the main key-notions 
concerning grammaticalization, analyzed with generative methods, as 
well as with sociolinguistic, semantic and pragmatic criteria. The 
second edition published in 2003 is updated and renewed with 
information about the unidirectionality and the role of 
grammaticalization in creolization.

REFERENCES

Heine, B., U. Claudi, F. Hunnemeyer. 1991. Grammaticalization: a 
Conceptual Framework. Chicago: University of Chicago Press

Lehmann, Ch. 1995. Thoughts on Grammaticalization. Munich: Lincom 
Europa

Meillet, A. 1958. Linguistique historique et linguistique générale. 
Paris. Champion

Wischer, I., G. Diewald, eds. 2002. New Reflections on 
Grammaticalization. Proceedings from the International Symposium on 
Grammaticalization, Potsdam, Germany. Amsterdam: Benjamins. 

ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Ioana-Ruxandra Dascalu studied Classical Philology and Literary Theory 
at the University of Bucharest, Romania. Her main research interests go 
to Latin linguistics (including theories of Functional Grammar), 
historical linguistics (especially the evolution from Latin to Romance 
languages), general linguistics, French linguistics (modalities, 
semantics and pragmatics), and intertextuality in ancient and modern 
canon.



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