Wednesday 3 June 2015

Transcategorisation: Shifting Lexemes From One Class To Another

Halliday & Matthiessen (1999: 242):
The phenomenon of transcategorising elements would seem to be a feature of the grammar of every language. This implies two things: (i) that each etymon belongs inherently to a major class; (ii) that at least some etymons can be transferred to another class — by some means, syntactic and/or morphological.