Grammaticalization and Semantic Reanalysis

Abstract

The article starts by describing grammaticalization- a kind of language change - on basis of examples and characterizations in earlier literature on language change. I argue that a full understanding of grammaticalization can only be achieved when we take compositional semantics and the syntax-semantics interface into account. The analysis of cases of grammaticalization as cases of semantic reanalysis not only allows to describe more precisely the synchronization of changes in meaning and structure. It also reveals why the resulting new units in language (morphemes, constructions, words) are often ‘abstract’ and in what sense such changes overwhelmingly but not necessarily are unidirectional. Section 4 offers a detailed account of the semantic reanalysis of German fast1 (‘solid, tight’) to fast2 (‘almost’) which illustrates the general principles of sections 2 and 3. After contrasting the present analysis of grammaticalization with earlier proposals in the literature (section 5), section 6 addresses the reasons for semantic reanalysis. I propose that one driving factor is the urge to avoid accommodation of presuppositions which are costly and implausible. This I call the strategy to “Avoid Pragmatic Overload”, an interpretive strategy of the hearer.