Gram - SEAS
Gram - SEAS
Gram - SEAS
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
I 14 5 The hypothesis oj unidirectionality<br />
Table 5.2 Ratio oj compound verbs in Marathi and<br />
Hindi-Urdu according to semantic class oJ main verb<br />
Semantic class of main verb<br />
Displacement or disposal<br />
Creation/change of state<br />
Change of psychic state<br />
Sensation or perception<br />
Mental action<br />
Communication<br />
Source: based on Hook (1991: 68-9)<br />
Marathi<br />
10%<br />
8%<br />
8%<br />
4%<br />
4%<br />
2%<br />
Hindi-Urdu<br />
44%<br />
30%<br />
8%<br />
8%<br />
10%<br />
20%<br />
example, she said) (Hook 1991: 69-70). Table 5.2 shows the difference between<br />
Marathi and Hindi-Urdu with regard to the ratio of compound verbs to the total<br />
verb forms for certain classes of main verbs. This suggests that, as grammaticalization<br />
proceeds, the semantic range of the emergent grammatical morpheme expands<br />
or generalizes. The difference between Hindi and Marathi is a statistical one, not<br />
a categorical one. Challenging Hook, Butt (Forthcoming) argues that since light<br />
verbs are highly stable and are historically a dead end, they are not intermed iate<br />
and should not be included in the verb-to-affix cline; they arise out of reanalysis<br />
of main verbs, but not out of grammaticalization, since they do not involve<br />
phonological loss, or any clear trajectory toward auxiliaries. However, even if they<br />
do not belong on the cline, they do suggest grammaticalization - phonological<br />
attrition is not a prerequisite, as the development of auxiliary must and might in<br />
English demonstrate, and passage through a complete cline is never necessary<br />
or expected for grammaticaJization. In this case, the decategorialization of the<br />
main verb and the frequency patterns suggest strongly that grammaticalization is<br />
involved.<br />
5.3.3 Multiple paths<br />
So far our examples in this chapter have arguably been of changes along<br />
a single cline. Not all cases of grammaticalization are of this kind, however. Some<br />
show development along two or possibly more different clines. Craig has given<br />
the name "polygrammaticalization" to such multiple developments, where a single<br />
form develops different grammatical fu nctions in different constructions. Her<br />
example is from Rama. As alluded to in Section 4.3.2 in connection with example<br />
(23), "bang 'go' in Rama developed into: (i) a temporal marker in the verbal
Change language