Lars Johanson: Isomorphic process review
Isomorphic
process
Grammaticalization
and copying of grammatical elements
What is
grammaticalization? When and how does it occur? What are the special terms that
we need to know to understand this field better?
Lars Johanson’s
paper on grammaticalization and copying deals with the main principles of that
field. The paper gives several examples of code-copying and grammaticalization.
He argues that grammaticalization cannot be shared by codes as a result of
code-copying.
First, he starts
with a description of isomorphism which means, ‘two or more languages share
specific ways creating grammatical markers’. These ways would be language
contact, inheritance or universal principles of grammatical change. The process
of grammaticalization is based on the speaker’s subjective assessment of
equivalence, not necessarily a typological equivalence. He explains specific
terms of code-copying like Selective Copying and Global Copying, however he
focuses on Selective Copying in the present paper because it is more relevant
for the topic of grammaticalization. When does Selective Grammatical Copying
occur? It usually occurs when the users of the Basic Code reach an advanced
level of the Model Code (so, the other language from which the copying occurs).
What elements
are more copiable than others? Johanson claims that more specific elements are
easier to copy than elements with general meanings. What elements are the
Target of Copying mostly? These are lexical elements of the Basic Code which
are more likely to match the items of the Model Code which is reanalyzed. For
example the word ‘two’ can become a dual marker in the other language.
What happens
after copying? There is life then too. Copied elements continue developing
their grammatical functions as an internal development in the Basic Code. It is
also possible that the output of the process may be inherited in the related
languages but without inheriting the process. However, it is possible to see
the result of these inheritance which is very helpful to establish relatedness
between two languages.
There is another
very interesting fact about similar elements. It can happen that disconnected
languages pass through the same phases. Sometimes genealogically related
languages after a long period of disconnection can undergo similar or the same
processes of grammaticalization. It’s a riddle!
Doesn’t it look
like languages are inheriting genetic information in their very DNA?
Let me know what
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