Walter Bisang Knihy

The volume contains a selection of papers originally presented at the symposium on “Areal patterns of grammaticalization and cross-linguistic variation in grammaticalization scenarios” held on 12-14 March 2015 at Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz. The papers, written by leading scholars combining expertise in historical linguistics and grammaticalization research, study variation in grammaticalization scenarios in a variety of language families (Slavic, Indo-Aryan, Tibeto-Burman, Bantu, Mande, „Khoisan“, Siouan, and Mayan). The volume stands out in the vast literature on grammaticalization by focusing on variation in grammaticalization scenarios and areal patterns in grammaticalization. Apart from documenting new grammaticalization paths, the volume makes a methodological contribution as it addresses an important question of how to reconcile universal outcomes of grammaticalization processes with the fact that the input to these processes is language-specific and construction-specific.

The status of grammaticalization has been the subject of many controversial discussions. The contributions to What makes Grammaticalization? approach the prevalent phenomenon from the angle of language structure and focus on the interrelation between the levels of phonology, pragmatics (inference), discourse and the lexicon and some of them try to integrate the areal perspective. A wealth of data from Slavonic languages as well as from languages of other genetic and areal affiliation is discussed. The book is of interest to linguists specializing in grammaticalization, lexicalization and morphological typology, to language typologists as well as to functional, historical and cognitive linguists.

The first volume of „Studia typologica“ contains the full length documentation og the plenary lectures of the Mainz Summer School on Typology 1998.

Kulturen und Sprachen unterliegen im Verlaufe der Zeit dem Wandel, der in einem beträchtlichen Maße vom Kontakt und dessen Qualität abhängt. Die Konsequenzen solcher kultureller und Sprachlicher Kontakte sind das Thema des vorliegenden Symposiumbandes.

Dieser Sammelband rückt den Kontakt ins Zentrum seiner Untersuchungen und vereinigt Erkenntnisse zu durch Kontakt ausgelösten Prozessen des Wandels aus allen beteiligten Disziplinen.