(Inter)subjectification in a functional theory of grammaticalization

Abstract

One may sometimes get the impression that (inter)subjectification is regarded as an aspect of grammaticalization, so that (roughly speaking) the more (inter)subjective an expression has become, the more grammaticalized it is. We propose that the two phenomena are better understood as clearly distinct. Grammaticalization in our view consists in a process whereby an expression becomes ancillary in relation to another expression (type), thereby at the same time creating a structural relation and a difference in prominence status. (Inter)subjectification, on the other hand, is purely a change in conventional semantic content. However, there is a particular type of diachronic process in which the two may go hand in hand. We try to give a precise account of what that type is and how it differs from other, related changes.

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