In this talk I discuss implications of a usage-based theory of the grammatical-lexical distinction according to which the distinction has to do with conventionalized attentional prominence potential (Boye & Harder 2012). After outlining the theory and giving examples of psycholinguistic and aphasiological studies that support it, I first discuss how, based on that theory, grammatical impairment can be understood both as a compensatory response to processing limitations and as caused by an impairment of a capacity for combining simple elements into complex ones (Boye et al. 2023). I then present a new understanding of grammaticalization which, while still usage-based, entails a rejection of the idea that lexicon and grammar are poles in a continuum or ‘cline’ (Boye 2023a, b). I end the talk by considering to what drives grammaticalization, and to which extent grammar is essential to human behaviour.

References

Boye, K. & P. Harder 2012. A usage-based theory of grammatical status and grammaticalization, Language 88.1. 1–44.

Boye, K. 2023. Grammaticalization as conventionalization of discursively secondary status: Deconstructing the lexical-grammatical continuum. Transactions of the Philological Society 121.2. 270–292.

Boye, K. 2023b. Evidentiality, discourse prominence and grammaticalization. Studies in Language

. doi.org/10.1075/sl.23001.boy

Boye, K., R. Bastiaanse, P. Harder & S. Martínez-Ferreiro. 2023. Agrammatism in a usage-based theory of grammatical status: Impaired combinatorics, compensatory prioritization, or both? Journal of Neurolinguistics 65, 101108.

Participation is free and open to everyone.

The event is financed by the SCC research program for Language and Communication.