Laurel J. Brinton

Brinton and Traugott try to achieve two goals with this book. One is to provide an overview of how notions of lexicalization and grammaticalization have been viewed in the literature and to lay out the conflicting interpretations of them as well as the resulting analyses that have sorted diachronic phenomena under both headings. This they do masterfully, with a solid grasp on the existing literature.

The second goal is to provide a workable definition of both lexicalization and grammaticalization that is a) relative, so that phenomena don't have to tick off all the criteria; b) sensible; and c) acceptable to many scholars in the field. I think they succeeded in accomplishing this goal, too.

Don't be fooled by the title, though: the book is more about grammaticalization than about anything else.… (meer)

I am deleting this review and not star-rating this book because Laurel Brinton is my boss and it's such an obvious conflict of interest. To fulfill LibraryThing's minimal-review requirements, I will state that I found this text a pleasure to work with. No red flag me, LibraryJerks!

Later: Now I am anonymous! No conflict! Suck it, professional conscientiousness!

Later still: Now Leslie Arnovick is on my thesis committee! Conflict of interest!

Even later yet: I graduated! Leslie asked me softball questions and the editorial experience gained working under Laurel was instrumental in my establishing myself in a moderately fulfilling career. The End.… (meer)