The Formal Semantics of Grammaticalization

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1、NELS25Proceedings(GLSA,UMassAmherst),Volume2:PapersfromtheWorkshopsonLanguageAcquisition&LanguageChange,pp.175-189TheFormalSemanticsofGrammaticalizationKaivonFintelMassachusettsInstituteofTechnologyGrammaticalizationisthegradualhistoricaldevelopmentoffunctionmorphemesfromcontentm

2、orphemes.AmongthecommonlyidentifiedcharacteristicsofthisprocessiswhatisoftencalledÒsemanticbleachingÓ:whilebecomingmoreandmorefunctionalthemorphemelosesmostofitsmeaning.Inthispaper,IaskwhatsensewecanmakeofÒsemanticbleachingÓfromaformalsemanticperspective.Iconsiderseveralwaysofcha

3、racterizingthesemanticsoffunctionalmorphemesanddiscusswhathastohappentothemeaningofamorphemethatisbeinggrammaticalized.Mymainclaimsare:¥Functionalmorphemesarenotmeaningless.¥Theirmeaningsarespecialhowever:theyarepermutation-invariant,havehightypes,andaresubjecttouniversalconstrai

4、nts.¥Grammaticalizationenrichestheinventoryoffunctionalmeaningsofalanguagebycomposingpre-existingfunctionalmeaningswithÒbleachedÓlexicalmeanings.Iwritethispaperwithalotoftrepidation,sinceIhavenÕtevenbeguntogetwellacquaintedwiththevastliteratureongrammaticalizationandthemanydetail

5、edandsophisticatedanalysesofparticularpathsofgrammaticalization.Mydiscussionthroughoutwillthereforestayatashockinglyabstractlevel.Ifthereisanyjustificationforthispaper,itisthatitpresentsasketchofadifferentperspectivethatmightbeinterestingbothtoscholarsofgrammaticalizationandtolin

6、guistsinthegenerativetradition.Inanycase,whatfollowsismorearesearchproposalthanaresearchreport.175JinanUniversity(124.128.158.37)-2013/3/17Download176KAIVONFINTEL1.FunctionalCategoriesinTheoreticalLinguisticsThedistinctionbetweenfunctionalmorphemesandcontentmorphemesisofcoursewel

7、l-establishedinmanylinguisticframeworks.Oneofthecrucialpropertiesoffunctionalmorphemesisthat,inanygivenlanguage,theirinventoryislimited,asopposedtotheopen-endedlexiconofcontentitems.Alistofsomeimportantkindsoffunctionalmorphemesmaygiveanideaofwhatwearedealingwith:(1)NounClass-Gen

8、der-Number-Determiner-Quantifier-Case-Ve