The Grammaticalization of Motion Verbs into Directionals in Chol

Abstract

Grammaticalization is a process by which a lexical item develops a grammatical function. It is a slow, and continuous cross-linguistic process. The transition from a lexical to a grammaticcal item would happen in a chain of overlapping processes where it is generally assumed that conceptual change would precede form change. Chol, amongst other languages, exhibits signs of grammaticalization as the motion verbs become directionals. This paper refers to two models, Hoder 2022 and Heine 1993. used to describe and define the processes used in grammaticalization. Based primarily on these previous work s, this paper establishes that most Chol directionals
were less advanced in the grammaticalization process with the two most common directionals, "toward" and "away", being more advanced.