LINGUIST List 7.1342

Fri Sep 27 1996

Disc: "Sitting on the fence", Grammaticalization

Editor for this issue: Ann Dizdar <dizdartam2000.tamu.edu>

Directory

1. ESLTEACHER, Re: 7.1286, Disc: "Sitting on the fence"
2. Esa Itkonen, Grammaticalization

Message 1: Re: 7.1286, Disc: "Sitting on the fence"

Regarding "sitting on a fence", as far as I've always understood it,
it indicated an "inability to make a choice or decision". In my part
of the United States (and probably in the rest, as well), culturally
speaking, this would be a negative quality.

Meg Gam
ESL Teacher

"You must be the change you wish to see in the world." Gandhi
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Of course the 'Chomskyan framework' is incompatible with
grammaticalization. Grammaticalization is generally conceptualized as
a two-stage process. (Let uas call the stages e.g. 'reanalysis' and
'extension'.) Reanalysis is based on a pre-existent model, i.e. it is
an analogical process. Extension analogically generalizes the result
of reanalysis to new contexts, i.e. it too is an analogical
process. (This will be argued more extensively elsewhere.) Now,
Chomsky's fondness of analogy is known to be minimal(ist).

Esa Itkonen