Theory and method in grammaticalization [Theorie und Methode in der Grammatikalisierung]

Abstract

This paper reviews a couple of theoretical and methodological issues in grammaticalization research, including in particular the relationship of grammaticalization to the synchrony/diachrony contrast, unidirectionality and degrammaticalization, lexicalization, analogy, reanalysis and lateral conversion. There are misunderstandings, both in the grammaticalization and in the anti-grammaticalization literature, of each of these issues. Grammaticalization, if construed appropriately, comprises a homogeneous set of phenomena and therefore remains a unified field of research and a worthy object of a linguistic theory.