Abstract :
In this article, it is proposed that processes of grammaticalization are determined
and constrained not only by the source semantics of the grammaticalizing item, i.e.
lexical persistence in the sense of Hopper (1991), but also by the original structure
the item occurs in. This previously unrecognized feature of grammaticalization is
referred to as structural persistence. The need to distinguish a structural equivalent
to lexical persistence is argued on the basis of a particularly exemplary case, viz. the
grammaticalization processes found with one lexically specific set of grammaticalizing
elements in English, adjectives of difference such as other, different, various, etc. Before
their grammaticalization, these adjectives occur in two different structural configurations,
viz. (1) external comparison, in which the adjective describes a relation of difference
between the referent of the noun phrase and a second, separately coded, entity, and (2)
internal comparison, in which the entities that are said to be different are all denoted by the
noun phrase containing the adjective. Even though they undergo the same general semantic
process of grammaticalization and delexicalization in both structures, the adjectives
acquire a different grammatical function in each of them. The different outcomes of
the grammaticalization process can only be explained by relating them to the specific
properties of the two source structures.
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