What is it about?
Linguistic items with high frequency do not necessarily undergo grammaticalization. This article argues that the depending on the properties of the contexts, frequency may or may not directly trigger the development of new gramaticalization. The more reliable independent variable andncatalyst in grammaticalization is "critical frequency," i.e., the number of occurrences of a grammaticalizing item in contexts with the similar pragmatic inferring conditions.
Featured Image
Why is it important?
The article discusses why the previous approach to the relationship between frequency and grammaticalization is problem, proposing that only critical frequency may trigger grammaticalization.
Perspectives
By writing this article I hope to re-examine the relationship between token frequency and grammaticalization.
rui peng
National University of Singapore
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Critical frequency as an independent variable in grammaticalization, Studies in Language, October 2012, John Benjamins,
DOI: 10.1075/sl.36.2.05pen.
You can read the full text:
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
