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Article published In: Language and Linguistics
Vol. 26:2 (2025) ► pp.323–354

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Measure schematicity through information content

A quantitative approach to grammaticalization

 | Soochow University
 | Soochow University
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Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.

Published online: 3 February 2025
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https://doi.org/10.1075/lali.00189.zha
Abstract
Apropos of the level of specificity, schematicity is the key indicator of grammaticalization in linguistics; compared to lexical items, the information provided by grammar patterns tends to be more abstract. With recourse to the notion of the quantifiable information content in information theory, the schematicity of a schema can be quantified by comparing the information content provided by the elements occurring in the open slots to that provided by the schema itself. A formula is thereby proposed to measure schematicity. This schematicity measure is able to illustrate the gradience and gradualness of grammaticalization in its applications in synchronic English data and diachronic Chinese data. Compared to previous measures of grammaticalization, there is a notable improvement in reliability and applicability.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Quantification of schematicity
    • 2.1Schematicity in information theory
    • 2.2Measurement of morphological grammaticalization
  • 3.Synchronic application of the schematicity measure
  • 4.Diachronic application of the schematicity measure
    • 4.1The grammaticalization of zài 在
    • 4.2The grammaticalization of zhe 着
    • 4.3Summary
  • 5.Discussions
    • 5.1Comparison with previous measures
    • 5.2Implications and future directions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Note
  • List of abbreviations
  • References
References (46)
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