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grammaticalize

Verb CEFR C2

Definitions

  1. To make grammatical.
  2. To integrate into a system of grammar; to make (something such as a constraint) an element or rule of grammar, to cause (something) to be required by grammar.
  3. To cause (a word, a suffix, etc) to undergo grammaticalization.

Equivalents

2 more languages

Examples

“Enhanced output arises when learners grammaticalize their output either through the use⟳ of more advanced interlanguage forms or of target⟳ language forms.”
“It is only later that learners begin⟳ to grammaticalize their speech. According to N. Ellis (1996), they do this by extracting rules from the items they have⟳ learned—bootstrapping their way to grammar.”
“That is, the cooccurrence restrictions do cross intervening specifications for the same feature. […] In the model⟳, a linguistic constraint against homorganicity (which may grammaticalize constraints on motor programming) is enforced on pairs […]”
“... Udmurt, Turkish, and Yucatec Mayan to test⟳ (and critique) the hypothesis that possessives grammaticalize into definite articles.”
“For example, some languages grammaticalize the universal preference for definite over indefinite subjects, whereas it remains a soft constraint in others […]”
“Similarly to other classifier languages in South America and elsewhere, a number⟳ of nouns grammaticalize as classifiers and are also used as derivational suffixes, e.g. *-maka 'stretch⟳ (of cloth)' (from *maka “hammock'), […]”
“Items that grammaticalize become⟳ more productive in the sense⟳ that the grammaticalizing element occurs with increasingly large numebrs of categories. […] Clearly, lexicalization is far less constrained by various types of linguistic processes than grammaticalization is.”
“As participles tend⟳ to grammaticalize into modal suffixes in Uralic and other Siberian languages, and not the other way around (Janhunen 1998: 471; Malchukov 2013), it can be assumed that the Proto-Samoyedic suffix *-pso was a participle ...”

CEFR level

C2
Mastery
This word is part of the CEFR C2 vocabulary — mastery level.
See all C2 English words →

See also

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