Degrammation
This chapter is the first of three chapters of case studies, and describes the type of degrammaticalization termed degrammation. Degrammation is defined as ‘a composite change whereby a function word in a specific linguistic context is reanalysed as a member of a major word class, acquiring the morphosyntactic properties which are typical of that word class, and gaining in semantic substance’. Examples include modal verbs becoming lexical verbs (both formally and semantically), and pronouns becoming nouns.
Keywords: degrammaticalization, degrammation, morphosyntactic properties, lexical verb, nouns, semantic substance, pronouns, modal verbs
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