Grammaticalization and Bodily Action: Do They Go Together?

ABSTRACT

This response discusses how Keevallik’s suggestion that grammar is in some ways shaped by the tasks and constraints of (cooperative) bodily action relates to the established view of grammaticalization as an “invisible hand” process resulting from routinization of the motor actions of speech as well as general cognitive faculties. While grammaticalization processes have so far mainly been studied in data from connected (and world-representing) discourse, Keevallik addresses indexical modes of language use that are older and inextricably linked to bodily acts. However, to effectively further the understanding of the emergence of grammar, the tasks of embodied action to which it is presumed to respond should be described in less context-specific terms, and greater attention ought to be paid to the emergence of grammatical structures over time. Data are in American English.

Notes

¹ But see the work of the Goodwins, which has shown from the outset how the grammatical structure of an utterance can be shaped by the embodied behavior of coparticipants (C. Goodwin, 1979, M. H. Goodwin, 1980).

² For an important, congenial approach to this question see C. Goodwin, 2018.

³ For a recent example of the latter process consider the reanalysis of like as a quotative marker (Streeck, 2002).