Affordances perspective and grammaticalization: Incorporation of language, environment and users in the model of semantic paths
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Keywords

affordances
grammaticalization
cognitive maps
verbal semantics
complexity
optimization

How to Cite

Andrason, A., & Visser, M. (2015). Affordances perspective and grammaticalization: Incorporation of language, environment and users in the model of semantic paths. Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching, 5(4), 663–696. https://doi.org/10.14746/ssllt.2015.5.4.7

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Abstract

The present paper demonstrates that insights from the affordances perspective can contribute to developing a more comprehensive model of grammaticalization. The authors argue that the grammaticalization process is afforded differently depending on the values of three contributing parameters: the factor (schematized as a qualitative-quantitative map or a wave of a gram), environment (understood as the structure of the stream along which the gram travels), and actor (narrowed to certain cognitive-epistemological capacities of the users, in particular to the fact of being a native speaker). By relating grammaticalization to these three parameters and by connecting it to the theory of optimization, the proposed model offers a better approximation to realistic cases of grammaticalization: The actor and environment are overtly incorporated into the model and divergences from canonical grammaticalization paths are both tolerated and explicable.
https://doi.org/10.14746/ssllt.2015.5.4.7
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