%0 Journal Article
%T Grammatical Words and Spreading of Contexts: Evidence from the Spanish Preposition a
%A Concepci¨®n Company Company
%J -
%D 2019
%R https://doi.org/10.3390/languages4010010
%X Abstract The paper shows that when grammatical words are involved, context is then the unit of language change. Certain changes consist in an active spreading of a form to new contexts, without changing the category or grammatical status of the form; in these cases, context must be considered the unit of language change. The empirical evidence is the diachrony of the Spanish preposition a ¡®to¡¯. Throughout history, this preposition pervasively extended to new and different contexts, but the form a never changed, remaining a grammatical preposition with a basic meaning of ¡®directive telicity towards a goal¡¯ (goal maybe locative, temporal, transitivity, finality, discursive, etc.). The paper labels this kind of change as ¡®context construction¡¯, and considers it an analogical extension induced by context. Finally, to test whether the diachrony of a is grammaticalization or not, the paper reviews fourteen related theoretical concepts, checking them against the diachronic evidence of the preposition a. View Full-Tex
%K context
%K grammaticalization
%K exaptation
%K refunctionalization
%K analogical extension
%U https://www.mdpi.com/2226-471X/4/1/10