The Study Of The Grammaticalization Of Motion Verbs

The paper discussed the theoretical fundamentals of grammaticalization by taking advantage of cognitive and pragmatics linguistics. Full-usages of motion verbs COME and GO were reviewed and related evolution processes were further revealed by the underlying grammaticalization theories. However, the paper does not wrap up at the mere theoretical investigation but turns to the corpus linguistics to examine constructions and collocations of these two motion verbs in English.Frequencies in British National Corpus were obtained and many interesting inspirations were unveiled. Grammaticalization thereby gains a hard-data support. The in-depth discussion of grammaticalization in the paper has following significance: Firstly, it denies the presupposition that language is self-governed. In fact, grammaticalization should be analyzed from cognition and pragmatics, factors beyond language system. That means language cannot be separated away from the experientiality and the reality. Secondly, it further substantiates the idea that language is evolving all the time. Grammaticalization is naturally processed in reality and during people's communication and it keeps on evolving. Thirdly, grammaticalization requires us to combine the diachronic and synchronic perspectives together. The target of the grammaticalization study is to explain many synchronic language structures but the present constructions are evolved from the past.To end up, the in-depth understanding of grammaticalization enlightens how language acquires its grammar. The corpus-based study on grammaticalization is of great significance and of great value. It should be addressed with tremendous efforts because it helps us understand how language is shaped better.