Gradience, Gradualness and Grammaticalization

This volume, which emerged from a workshop at the New Reflections on Grammaticalization 4 conference held at KU Leuven in July 2008, contains a collection of papers which investigate the relationship between synchronic gradience and the apparent gradualness of linguistic change, largely from the perspective of grammaticalization. In addition to versions of the papers presented at the workshop, the volume contains specially commissioned contributions, some of which offer commentaries on a subset of the other articles. The articles address a number of themes central to grammaticalization studies, such as the role of reanalysis and analogy in grammaticalization, the formal modelling of grammaticalization, and the relationship between formal and functional change, using data from a range of languages, and (in some cases) from particular electronic corpora. The volume will be of specific interest to historical linguists working on grammaticalization, and general linguists working on the interface between synchrony and diachrony.

Aya Katz, Inverted A-Inc, in Studies in Language Vol. 34:4 (2010):
The triumph of Gradience, gradualness and grammaticalization is in its ability to present conflicting points of view on the issue under discussion in a useful, thought provoking way that ultimately leads to a deep understanding of the subject matter. All of the papers make significant points, and because some of the authors review the work of others in the volume, the reader comes away with a coherent picture of the field that helps to reconcile divergent viewpoints and reveals the underlying consensus behind the different approaches.