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Part of
Exaptation and Language Change
Edited by Muriel Norde and Freek Van de Velde
[Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 336] 2016
► pp. 121–162

Functional changes and (meta-)linguistic evolution

Every time a scientist hears an idea and passes it on to somebody else, he is likely to change it somewhat.(Dawkins 1976 [1989]: 194)

(Dawkins 1976 [1989]: 194)

In this contribution I assess some mainstream approaches to functional changes of grammatical expressions with a focus on two concepts – ‘(secondary) grammaticalization’ and ‘exaptation’. As to the former, I argue that the most influential definition of ‘grammaticalization’ by Kuryłowicz’s (1965) results from a terminological accident rather than from a systematic observation or analysis of linguistic changes. The consequence is that various heterogeneous properties are nowadays associated with one and the same concept. Generally, ‘grammaticalization’ as well as other functional changes discussed in the literature are defined by the status of an expression before and after a change, not by the process itself. On this basis, I will argue that ‘exaptation’ is a concept distinct from other mainstream notions of language change, provided that the context of ‘evolution’ as a principle of variation and change, out of which ‘exaptation’ was brought into linguistics, is taken seriously.

Article outline
  • 1.Linguistic metalanguage
  • Part I.Secondary grammaticalization
    • 2.How ‘grammaticalization’ came to be what it is
      • 2.1From lexical to grammatical – Antoine Meillet
      • 2.2From grammatical to more grammatical – Jerzy Kuryłowicz
      • 2.3Subsequent thoughts about grammaticalization – Christian Lehmann
      • 2.4More about ‘more grammatical’ – “Secondary grammaticalization”
    • 3.How grammaticalization and grammaticalization (do not) connect with each other
    • 4.Formal and functional changes
      • 4.1Keeping apart the insoluble
      • 4.2Declining the cline
  • Part II.Exaptation
    • 5.Functional changes and their names
    • 6.How to motivate ‘exaptation’
      • 6.1Junk as input
      • 6.2Exaptation and language evolution
      • 6.3Spandrel as input
    • 7.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 24 February 2016
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/cilt.336.05men
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