@incollection{01JPTJAHPXWG11Q89JC09FC63S,
  abstract     = {{Grammaticalization is a complex, gradual, directional, pervasive process of language change by which linguistic material is integrated progressively into the grammatical system of a given language. With a period of attestation spanning well over a millennium, the Germanic languages provide plentiful and variegated data for the qualitative and quantitative analysis of grammaticalization processes and their impact on language systems. This includes word order–based clause-typing, associating positions of the verb with different sentence moods (verb-second, verb-first) or the absence thereof (verb-final), and clause structure (various types of bracketing, the obligatorification of the subject). It also includes grammaticalization processes in the nominal domain (giving rise, inter alia, to definite and indefinite articles, to prepositional phrases compensating for the loss of inflectional morphology, and to new prepositions), in the verbal domain (including the grammaticalization of auxiliary-incorporating verb forms like the perfect and the future, of modal verbs, of passive morphology and progressives, of phrasal substitutes for inflectional morphology, etc.) and in clause-combining (whence the emergence of hypotaxis as a prototype, featuring clause-final position of the verb in Continental West Germanic, tight clause-integration, rich inventories of subordinating conjunctions). There is also evidence of changes that diverge from the canonical model of grammaticalization processes and have been discussed in the literature under labels like pragmaticalization (e.g., the rise of discourse markers and modal particles) and degrammaticalization (e.g., the deinflectionalization of genitive markers). Although the main theoretical trend in grammaticalization studies remains functionalist, evidence from the Germanic languages has been cited in formalist research on grammaticalization (e.g., parameter typology) and in debates over wider issues such as the systemic embedding and cyclical progress of language change. Given a functionalist concept of language as a complex adaptive system, grammaticalization can be shown to be motivated by such language-external factors as communication, cognition, contact, and culture. Evidence from Germanic is also being cited in the debate over the relationship of grammaticalization with constructionalization, with some authors suggesting that the concept of grammaticalization should be integrated into Diachronic Construction Grammar, given that grammaticalization takes place within constructions, changes existing constructions, and creates new ones.}},
  author       = {{Leuschner, Torsten}},
  booktitle    = {{Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Linguistics}},
  isbn         = {{9780199384655}},
  keywords     = {{Germanic,language change,grammaticalization,constructionalization,functionalism,historical linguistics,language family}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  publisher    = {{Oxford University Press}},
  title        = {{Grammaticalization in Germanic}},
  url          = {{http://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199384655.013.959}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}

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