Tania Kuteva

On grammaticalization and complexity

Abstract.

In this talk I will be concerned with one particular aspect of complexity, namely linguistic accretion, or elaborateness of marking (Kuteva and Comrie 2001, Comrie and Kuteva 2005, Kuteva and Comrie 2005, Kuteva, forthc.). There have been several proposals for an explanation of linguistic accretion in the specialized literature already. In the present work, I identify another factor which leads to linguistic accretion, and which has remained largely unnoticed in the literature so far, namely contact-induced grammaticalization (Heine and Kuteva 2005). I account for linguistic accretion in contact-induced grammaticalization in terms of an integrative model of grammaticalization (Kuteva and Heine, forthc).

REFERENCES Comrie, Bernard & Tania Kuteva, 2005. The evolution of grammatical structures and “functional need” explanations. In: Language origins: perspectives on evolution, ed. by Maggie Tallerman. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Heine, Bernd and Tania Kuteva 2005. Language contact and grammatical change. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press.

Kuteva, forthc. “On the ´frills´ of grammaticalization”. In: López-Couso, María José & Elena Seoane (eds.), in collaboration with Teresa Fanego. Rethinking grammaticalization: New perspectives for the twenty-first century (Typological Studies in Language). Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

Kuteva, Tania and Bernard Comrie 2001. Relativization strategies in Africa. Paper presented at the International Symposium: “Typology of African Languages”, May 21-24, St. Augustin, Germany.

Kuteva, Tania & Bernard Comrie 2005. The typology of relative clause formation in African languages. African Studies, ed. by Erhard Voeltz. Amsterdam: Benjamins.

Kuteva, Tania and Bernd Heine forthc. An integrative model of grammaticalization.