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Keywords:

Social Sciences, Linguistics, Language & Linguistics, GRAMMATICALIZATION, 2003 Language Studies, 2004 Linguistics, Languages & Linguistics, 4703 Language studies, 4704 Linguistics

Abstract:

This article is concerned with peripheral modifiers in the English noun phrase. It is argued that this kind of modification is an Early Modern English innovation. Later, in the nineteenth century, the slot underwent a rapid extension on both the type and the token levels, as is shown by historical corpus inquiry. To account for the diachronic processes involved, a constructional, usage-based approach is used, with an onomasiological rather than a semasiological perspective on grammaticalisation. © 2011 Cambridge University Press.