...Traugott, Grammaticalization (Cambridge Press, 1993), 2, and quoted by the author, be defined as the "process whereby lexical items and constructions come in certain linguistic contexts to serve grammatical functions ..." Based on the author's Harvard doctoral dissertation completed under the supervision of John Huehnergard, it takes up a number of thorny issues within comparative Semitic linguistics.

Chapter one, "Introduction," explains the process of grammaticalization by citing well-known examples, such as French pas, "step," developing into the "negative" via analogy from constructions such as Je ne vais pas, "I don't go a step" (p. 3). From the coining of the term by Antoine Meillet in 1912, one comes to appreciate that Semitists were cognizant of the process without knowing it had a specific label, nor were they aware down through the decades of the twentieth century...

NOTE: All illustrations and photos have been removed from this article.



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