Chapter 7. New perspectives on phonological erosion as an aspect of grammaticalization

Abstract

Phonological erosion as a concomitant of grammaticalization has been a prevailing assumption for four decades. Phonological erosion is, in fact, a general diachronic process with reduction occurring at the rate of about 15–20% per millennium. Reduction related to grammaticalization is often faster than the nominal rate and this has supported the standard theory. In a language, which is an adaptive and isostatic system, phonological loss, at nominal or accelerated rates, whether associated with grammaticalization or otherwise, interacts with mechanisms of compensation. Such interaction, a complex process, supports lexical right-sizing, an expression of the Quantity Principle. Phonological loss that accompanies grammaticalization, often significant and often uncompensated, is one aspect of this general diachronic process.