Language StudiesLinguisticsLanguage AcquisitionLanguage DevelopmentPsycholinguisticsGrammarGrammar AcquisitionSyntactic ChangeCognitive Change ProcessesCognitive GrammarCognitive Learning ProcessesGrammar TheoryGrammatical Morpheme AcquisitionGrammaticalization Of Tense MarkersPrescriptive Grammar
All of linguistic theory is concerned with the enterprise of elucidating the nature of the grammar of human languages. But along with asking the question “What is the nature of grammar?,” we can also ask “How do languages acquire grammar?.” In the last 20 years, researchers interested in the latter question have elaborated a theory of grammaticalization, the process by which grammar is created, and in doing so have also come up with some interesting new perspectives on the former question.1 Four main findings of this research are listed here:Grammar is not a static, closed, or self-contained system, but is highly susceptible to change and highly affected by language use. The loss of grammar is generally acknowledged and often lamented by prescriptive grammarians, who mourn the loss of the distinction between who and whom but fail to rejoice in the creation of new grammar, such as the new future tense signaled by gonna. In fact, the creation of new grammatical morphemes and structures is as common as the loss of old ones.