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14
1.Introduction
getingamajorobstacleoutofthewayoftheorizingaboutHthedetailed
semanticsanddistributionofparticularwords,grammaticalmorphemes,
andcross-linguisticallyunusualphrasalpaterns”(Goldberg,2006,p.5).
Itisevidentenoughthatthedistinctionisanon-banalissue.Itisunlikely
tobeamereillusionthatpersisteduntiltheendofthetwentiethcen‑
tury.Aswillbedemonstratedbelow,thereisanoverwhelmingamount
ofevidenceinfavorofpostulatingaqualitativedivisionthatorganizes
languageforms.Yetatthesametime,ratherparadoxically,thestrong
senseofseparationdoesnottranslateintoabinarydistinctionbyasharp
line.Themoreonereviewsintermediatecasesofformsthatseemtofall
wherethedivisionshouldlie,themorethedistinctionturnsouttobe
adisappointinglyfaciledichotomy.
Incidentally,itisratherobviouswhythetwodomainsareseparated
byablurredintermediatedistrict,andnotasharpon-ofdistinction.The
indistinctdivisionisadirectconsequenceofgrammaticization,which
isitselfcharacterizedbygradualandnotdiscretestages.Thedivision
isfuzzybecausethatistheonlywayanitemcancrossover:dramatic
changescannothappenovernightasone-fell-swooptransformations;
theyhavetobegradual.Manyformslocatedinthemiddleareelements
intransit(itisnotmerespeculationtopredictthattransitionalforms
likeconcerningornotwithstandingwillcontinuetheirprogresstoward
becomingfull-fledgedprepositionsandwillatsomepointapproachthe
closed-classextreme).Furthermore,aformintransitionisofenfoundto
exhibitaconsiderablesynchronicdistributionofmeanings:acaseinpoint
istheverbcan,whichretainsarangeofmeanings,someofwhichmore
lexicalthanother,moregrammaticizedones(Bybee&Pagliuca,1987;
Bybee,2010).Aglanceatthedefinitionsofcaninanydictionaryshows
arangeofmeaningsatvariousstagesofgrammaticization,fromthelexi‑
calIknowledge,skill’tomoregrammaticalIgeneralpossibility’meanings.
Thecoexistenceofsuchvariedmeaningswithinasingleverbisitselfan
indicationoftheinherentlyfuzzynatureofthelexicon-syntaxsystem.
Thefuzzinessisasynchronicreflectionofdiachronicdevelopments.
Thedimcultyinfindingadivisionisinfactarestatementofthe
dimcultyindeterminingthepointatwhichlexicalitemsturninto
grammaticalforms.AsBybeeandothers(1994,p.10)observe,H[o]ne
probleminidentifyingthepropertiesoflexicalitemsthatarecandidates
forgrammaticizationistheproblemofdeterminingatexactlywhatpoint
wecansaythatgrammaticizationhasbegun.”Ofcourse,onecannot
determineanysuchpointexactly,exceptperhapsarbitrarily.Still,
thisdoesnotmakeitimpossibletotalkaboutgrammaticization,its
directionality,irreversibilityandendproductthatisqualitativelydifer-
entfromtheoriginalmaterial.
