In
linguistics, the term ''specialization'' (as defined by
Paul Hopper
Paul J. Hopper is an American linguist of British birth. In 1973, he proposed the glottalic theory regarding the reconstruction of the Proto-Indo-European consonant inventory, in parallel with the Georgian linguist Tamaz Gamkrelidze and the Russi ...
), refers to one of the five principles by which
grammaticalization
In historical linguistics, grammaticalization (also known as grammatization or grammaticization) is a process of language change by which words representing objects and actions (i.e. nouns and verbs) become grammatical markers (such as affixes or p ...
can be detected while it is taking place. The other four principles are:
layering,
divergence,
persistence, and
de-categorialization.
Specialization refers to the narrowing of choices that characterizes an emergent
grammatical construction. The
lexical meaning of a grammaticalizing feature decreases in scope, so that in time the feature conveys a generalized grammatical meaning.
"Within a functional domain, at one stage a variety of forms with different semantic
Semantics (from grc, σημαντικός ''sēmantikós'', "significant") is the study of reference, meaning, or truth. The term can be used to refer to subfields of several distinct disciplines, including philosophy, linguistics and comput ...
nuances may be possible; as grammaticalization takes place, this variety of formal choices narrows and the smaller number of forms selected assume more general grammatical meanings." (Hopper 1991: 22)
References
* Lessau, Donald A. A Dictionary of Grammaticalization. Bochum: Brockmeyer, 1994.
*
Hopper, Paul J. "On some principles of grammaticization". In Elizabeth Closs Traugott and Bernd Heine, eds. Approaches to Grammaticalization, Vol. I. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 1991. pp. 17–36.
Historical linguistics
{{historical-linguistics-stub