Title: Grammaticalization and Variation
Subtitle: The Case of Mayan Motion Verbs
Series Title: Studia Typologica
Published: 2021
Publisher: De Gruyter Mouton
https://cloud.newsletter.degruyter.com/mouton

Book URL: https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110728613/html

Author: Nicole Hober
Electronic: ISBN: 9783110728613 Pages: 377 Price: U.S. $ 114.99
Hardback: ISBN: 9783110728507 Pages: 377 Price: U.S. $ 114.99
Abstract:

Grammaticalization research looks back on a rich history, but recent empirical findings, as well as new insights from cognitive science and psycholinguistics, entice researchers to reassess and review what we know about the process. This book presents a detailed study of the grammaticalization of motion verbs in the Mayan languages. The focus lies on variation in the parallel grammaticalization of motion verbs into auxiliaries and directionals. It is demonstrated that the genetically related and areally close languages do not always grammaticalize source items in the same way – both from a formal and meaning perspective. The empirical findings suggest that traditional theories on grammaticalization do not capture the complex nature of the phenomenon entirely. Therefore, a Network Approach to grammaticalization is introduced which emphasizes a ‘meaning-first’ account. The approach seeks to combine the conceptual with the discourse-pragmatic while being firmly grounded in cognitive and psychological facts. New insights into the grammaticalization behavior of the world’s languages are offered, while well-established notions and assumptions within the grammaticalization research paradigm are reviewed and challenged.

Linguistic Field(s): Cognitive Science
Historical Linguistics
Psycholinguistics
Language Family(ies): Mayan

Written In: English (eng)

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https://linguistlist.org/pubs/books/get-book.cfm?BookID=159115