Includes bibliographical references and index.

List of Tables and Figures -- Abbreviations -- 1 Introduction -- 2 Syntagmatic Weight -- 2.1 Introduction -- 2.2 Fusional Languages -- 2.3 Agglutinating Languages -- 2.4 Isolating Languages -- 2.5 Summary and Conclusions -- 3 Syntagmatic Cohesion -- 3.1 The Nature of Bondedness and Its Relations to Other Parameters -- 3.2 On the Reliability and Typological Relevance of Coalescence as an Indicator of Grammaticalization -- 3.3 Coalescence and Change of Morphological Type -- 3.4 Coalescence in Grammaticalization and Lexicalization -- 3.5 Summary and Conclusions -- 4 Syntagmatic Variability -- 4.1 Introduction -- 4.2 Re(de)fining Syntagmatic Variability -- 4.3 Syntagmatic Variability and Word Order Change -- 4.4 Summary and Conclusions -- 5 Phonological Autonomy -- 5.1 Segmental Erosion -- 5.2 Suprasegmental Erosion -- 5.3 Summary and Conclusions -- 6 Formal Change in FDG -- 6.1 Introduction -- 6.2 Syntagmatic Cohesion in FDG -- 6.3 Syntagmatic Variability in FDG -- 6.4 Phonological Autonomy in FDG -- 6.5 Conclusions -- 7 Conclusions -- 7.1 In Defence of Complexity -- 7.2 Conclusions Proper -- References -- Language Index -- Subject Index.

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.

English

Description based on print version record.