| Grammaticalization is one of the important laws of language development and change,and it is also an important part of grammar research.As a frequently used word,“however”also undergoes grammaticalization as time goes on.So far,there is still room for research on the grammaticalization and usage of “however”,since there are inconsistencies in the discussion of the word class of “however” and there is a lack of research on its usage,and its function may have changed in the process of actual use.A combination of qualitative and quantitative methods is used in this thesis.Based on the Middle English Compendium(MEC),the Corpus of History American English(COHA),and the Corpus of Contemporary American English(COCA),and drawing on the grammaticalization theory,this paper studies the grammaticalization of “however” from its syntactic and semantic development and explains the motivation and mechanism of its grammaticalization.Lastly,the usage of “however” after grammaticalization is analyzed at the synchronic level.It aims to investigate three research questions:(1)What is the process of grammaticalization of “however”?(2)What characteristics does it present in the process of grammaticalization?(3)After the grammaticalization,what usages does “however” have?The research findings are as follows:(1)“However” was first used in Middle English to modify adjectives,adverbs,and verbs.Then,it develops to connect two clauses or sentences,and it has been on the rise from 1820-2019 when it was located at the beginning to connect.Therefore,the syntactic process of grammaticalization of “however” is from an adverb as an adverbial to a connective component.Semantically,it also undergoes a process from the content meaning to the epistemic modality meaning.In addition,the grammaticalization of “however” is functioned by the high frequency of use,pragmatic reasoning,decategorization,metaphor,and metonymy.(2)In the process of grammaticalization of “however”,it shows five characteristics,which are characteristics of unidirectionality,meaning generalization,persistence,layering,and graduality.(3)In terms of usage,it can be divided into modifying and connective aspects,which can be used before adjectives,adverbs,or verbs,at the beginning,middle,or end of sentences or clauses respectively.Otherwise,in the corpus,its frequency in different positions proves that it is most frequently used at the beginning to connect two clauses or sentences.The study of the grammaticalization and usage of “however” based on the corpus enriches the study of grammaticalization and provides ideas for the grammaticalization of other conjunctive adverbs;it also clarifies its grammaticalization process and usage,which has certain practical significance for vocabulary teaching.It helps to recognize deeply that language constantly evolves. |
