Semantic Change In Grammaticalization

Grammaticalization is, to a great extent, the abstraction of lexical items or constructions which have developed into the minimal grammatical units. As a universal linguistic phenomenon, grammaticalization has engaged the attention of eastern and western scholars for a long time. However, it did not assume its place with its own right in the science of language until the beginning of the 1970s. After 1970, the grammaticalization studies, influenced by the new branches of linguistics, such as pragmatics, cognitive linguistics, have taken on a new look. Firstly, the studies are more explanatory than descriptive, i.e. they aim not only to describe what individual grammaticalization cases are like, but also to probe the reasons behind the linguistic facts. Secondly, the scope of the studies has been extended from lexical items to phrases, syntactic structures, and even discourses.It is widely agreed that a typical grammaticalization involves change at various levels, such as, morphosyntactic, phonemic, and semantic/ pragmatic levels, but to the question which change is the driving force, generative linguists and functionalists present different answers. The former maintain that it is formal change that drives the grammaticalization process and brings about meaning change as its by-product. Contrary to this view, the latter stress that grammaticalization is a semantically led development; thus,semantic/functional shift leads and formal change follows in grammaticalization. In this paper we tend to study grammaticalization from the functional perspective and take semantic/functional change involved in it as our focus in order to deepen our understanding of grammaticalization phenomena.This paper aims to answer the following questions: What is grammaticalization? How does semantic change happen? What are the characteristics of semantic change? What are the paths of semantic change in grammaticalization? What can we benefit from the findings of the current research?This paper consists of six chapters.Chapter one defines grammaticalization, followed by a short historical review of both western and eastern grammaticalization studies, and then outlines the structure of the following chapters.Chapter Two concerns the main facets of grammaticalization. Three typical characteristics are .mentioned, including: (a) unidirectionality, (b) nondiscreteness, (c) gradualness; and two main mechanisms: reanalysis and analogy, are also talked about. These features are helpful for us to concentrate on the studies of the semantic/functional change in grammaticalization in the following chapters.Chapter Three studies some principles of grammaticalization. These principles are layering, divergence, persistence, decategorialization. Such principles are useful; for one thing, they can help us to recognize cases of grammaticalization and judge the degree of grammaticalization of certain cases, and for another, they are closely connected with the semantic/functional change in grammaticalization, and studying them can make some preparation for the study in Chapter Four and Chapter Five.Chapter Four emphasizes the semantic/pragmatic change in grammaticalization. First, we argue for the decisive role of semantic change in grammaticalization. Second, we explain the motivation for semantic change, pointing out that semantic change is the result of the interaction of human cognition and communication: metapnor as a cognitive mechanism determines the direction of semantic change, and pragmatic inference in communicative contexts makes semantic change possible. Third, with respect to the controversy about the amount of meaning change in grammaticaliztion, we tentatively propose a focus shift from amount to content of meaning change as a way to settle the debate. Finally, we concentrate on the paths of semantic change in grammaticalization,suggesting that they show tendency of subj certification.Chapter Five provides case studies of semantic change in grammaticalization. The cases are: (a) the development of aspec...