Re: THEORY : reverse clitization
| From: | Thomas R. Wier <trwier@...> |
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| Date: | Saturday, August 23, 2003, 19:47 |
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Quoting Andreas Johansson <andjo@...>:
> Just a terminological question that came up when thinking about the English
> and Swedish genitives:
>
> When a particle becomes a clitic, we speak of "clitization". Would the word
> also apply to an affix semidetaching to become a clitic (as these genitive
> markers have done), or is there another term for that?
I don't know of a particular word for this; I suspect a newly
polysemous "cliticization" would be used.
> While at it, are there terms for a clitic fully detaching to become an
> independent word, or attaching fully to become an affix?
For the latter notion, yes: _grammaticalization_. For the former
(e.g. the recent development of "ex" for "former spouse"), I don't
believe there is a distinct word, but perhaps "degrammaticalization"
would do.
=========================================================================
Thomas Wier "I find it useful to meet my subjects personally,
Dept. of Linguistics because our secret police don't get it right
University of Chicago half the time." -- octogenarian Sheikh Zayed of
1010 E. 59th Street Abu Dhabi, to a French reporter.
Chicago, IL 60637
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