Grammaticalization in Slavic languages

B Wiemer - 2011 - academic.oup.com
B Wiemer
2011academic.oup.com
This article examines the grammaticalisation developments in Slavic languages. The
functions of the past tenses lost in northern Slavic are only partially covered by the younger
opposition of perfective and imperfective aspect. The only new classes of morphemes that
arose in some sub-areas of Slavic are the definite and the indefinite article, both with
preliminary, not-yet-grammaticalised stages in some more Slavic varieties. In sum, in Slavic
grammaticalization, phenomena have occurred predominantly in the realm of verbal …
Abstract
This article examines the grammaticalisation developments in Slavic languages. The functions of the past tenses lost in northern Slavic are only partially covered by the younger opposition of perfective and imperfective aspect. The only new classes of morphemes that arose in some sub-areas of Slavic are the definite and the indefinite article, both with preliminary, not-yet-grammaticalised stages in some more Slavic varieties. In sum, in Slavic grammaticalization, phenomena have occurred predominantly in the realm of verbal categories; only very few phenomena are related to the noun phrase.
Oxford University Press