Academic Paper |
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| Title: | A Relevance Theory Perspective on Grammaticalization |
| Author: | Steve Nicolle |
| Email: | click here to access email |
| Institution: | Africa International University |
| Linguistic Field: | Historical Linguistics; Pragmatics |
| Abstract: | I argue that grammaticalization can be characterized as involving a shift from conceptual to procedural encoding, in the relevance theory use of these terms. Conceptual information need not disappear at once, which leads to semantic retention. This model also explains why grammaticalization is unidirectional. Since the purpose of procedural information is to reduce processing effort, and all communication (according to Relevance Theory) is geared to minimizing processing effort, if information is lost as an expression grammaticalizes, this should be procedural rather than conceptual. |
| Type: | Individual Paper |
| Status: | Completed |
| Publication Info: | Cognitive Linguistics 9: 1-35. |
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