Cline (linguistics)

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In linguistics, a cline is a scale of continuous gradation. While cline is most frequently invoked as a general concept, it has also developed specialized uses in various linguistic sub-disciplines.

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[edit] Cline of grammaticalisation

Within the study of grammaticalisation, the process of linguistic change in which a content word changes to a function word or a grammatical affix is depicted as a cline of grammaticalisation. [1]

[edit] Cline of instantiation

In his early work, the linguist Michael Halliday theorized about the cline of instantiation and noted its centrality to corpus linguistics. [2] [3]

[edit] General usage

Less formally, cline has been applied to describe a wide variety of linguistic gradients:

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Fischer, Olga; Muriel Norde and Harry Perridon (2004). 59 Up and down the Cline – The Nature of Grammaticalization. John Benjamins, 406 pages. ISBN 9789027229687. 
  2. ^ Halliday, Michael (2003). On Language and Linguistics. Continuum, 448 pages. ISBN 0826458696. 
  3. ^ Dr Maria Herke, A methodology for theoretically empowered corpus analysis