In this volume, long-standing assumptions about the formal changes involved in grammaticalization are evaluated in the light of the striking diversity of human languages. To this end, the traditional notions of morphological coalescence, syntactic fixation and phonological erosion are reassessed with regard to their relationship with the diachronic changes affecting the function of the construction and with larger-scale typological changes that affect the language as a whole (especially, shifts in morphological type and word-order patterns). The author reaches the conclusion that suprasegmental phonological erosion and syntactic fixation (redefined in a template-based framework) are direct consequences of functional change and are therefore significant indicators of grammaticalization, whereas coalescence and segmental erosion are independently motivated by psycholinguistic, rather than strictly grammatical factors.
Riccardo Giomi, Ph.D. (2020), University of Lisbon, is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Liège. He has authored several publications on Functional Discourse Grammar, among which Headedness and modification in Functional Discourse Grammar (Glossa 5.1, 2020) and The place of interpersonal lexemes in linguistic theory, with special reference to Functional Discourse Grammar (Corpus Pragmatics 5.2, 2021).
List of Tables and Figures Abbreviations
1 Introduction
2 Syntagmatic Weight
â2.1âIntroduction
â2.2âFusional Languages
â2.3âAgglutinating Languages
â2.4âIsolating Languages
â2.5âSummary and Conclusions
3 Syntagmatic Cohesion
â3.1âThe Nature of Bondedness and Its Relations to Other Parameters
â3.2âOn the Reliability and Typological Relevance of Coalescence as an Indicator of Grammaticalization
â3.3âCoalescence and Change of Morphological Type
â3.4âCoalescence in Grammaticalization and Lexicalization
â3.5âSummary and Conclusions
4 Syntagmatic Variability
â4.1âIntroduction
â4.2âRe(de)fining Syntagmatic Variability
â4.3âSyntagmatic Variability and Word Order Change
â4.4âSummary and Conclusions
5 Phonological Autonomy
â5.1âSegmental Erosion
â5.2âSuprasegmental Erosion
â5.3âSummary and Conclusions
6 Formal Change in FDG
â6.1âIntroduction
â6.2âSyntagmatic Cohesion in FDG
â6.3âSyntagmatic Variability in FDG
â6.4âPhonological Autonomy in FDG
â6.5âConclusions
7 Conclusions
â7.1âIn Defence of Complexity
â7.2âConclusions Proper
References Language Index Subject Index
The audience targeted by the work includes researchers in and postgraduate students of historical linguistics, linguistic typology and the theory of Functional Discourse Grammar.