International Journal of Management and Applied Science, ISSN: 2394-7926 Volume-5, Issue-11, Nov.-2019 http://iraj.in THE GRAMMATICALIZATION OF VERBS IN THAI 1SUMALEE PHONKHUNSAP, 2ITSARATE DOLPHEN 1Ph.D. candidate in Thai Program, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Khon Kaen University,Thailand A lecturer in Thai Program, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences Rajabhat Maha Sarakham, University, Thailand 2Assistant Professor, Thai Language Department, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Khon Kaen University, Thailand E-mail: [email protected], [email protected] Abstract - The objective of this study was to synthesize the studies on the grammaticalization of verbs in Thai from the Sukhothai period to the present. The information was collected from theses, researches and articles in both Thai and foreign languages in a total of 26 studies which included 17 theses and 9 articles. The results reveal that most studies were published 1991 – 2014 consisting of 14 synchronic studies and 12 diachronic studies. The synthesis of the studies on the grammaticalization of verbs in Thai shows that all studies are comparative linguistics in Thai language at different periods and there are a few studies on the grammaticalization in Thai dialects. Therefore, there should be more studies on grammaticalization in Thai dialects which will be useful for providing additional information for the overview of grammaticalization in Thailand. Keywords - Grammaticalization, Language Change, Dialect, Northeastern Thai Dialect I. INTRODUCTION words and are necessary, while adverbs, prepositions and conjunctions are the results of abbreviation or Grammaticalization is a concept that has been studied mutilation of nouns and verbs. In addition, the study for a long time by many linguists. The term by Bopp (1833), who studied the comparative "grammaticalization" was first proposed by the grammars, has provided examples of the development French linguist Antoine Meillet (Millet, 1912 : 131) of words into auxiliaries or affixes and suffixes. which defined it as “the attribution of a grammatical Whitney (1875) found that semantic factors are character to a previously autonomous word”. Hopper important for changing concrete meaning into and Traugott (1993: xv) stated that abstract one. grammaticalization is a process that the content words or keywords show grammatical functions in In this article, the studies on grammaticalization of one context and more grammatical functions and verbs in standard Thai as well as Thai dialects were meanings are developed over time. The major cause collected and synthesized in a total of 26 studies of grammaticalization is the need of more words in which included 17 theses and 9 articles. The results speech or communication in which a word is used in from this article can be used as the guidelines for a different position or with different meaning. This studying the grammatical changes of Tai languages as wording become a syntactic unit over times. well as the guidelines for studying Grammaticalization is a universal concept as Hopper grammaticalization of various categories of words in and Traugott (2003) suggested that this concept can standard Thai and Thai dialects, for both diachronic be used as a conceptual framework of a study of and synchronic studies. language change because grammaticalization is a spontaneous language change that can be found in all II. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY categories of languages. Grammaticalization has been widely studied in 2.1 Concept of grammaticalization various languages around the world. For example, The authors discuss the concept of Nantariya Lamciaktet (1996 : 25) discussed about the grammaticalization which is divided into 2 related background of the grammaticalization in other aspects, content and grammatical words and countries and Heine, Claudi and Hunnemeyer (1991 : grammaticalization. a) summarized that in the beginning the studies on grammaticalization by many linguists are the studies 2.1.1 Content words and grammatical words of the sources of grammatical words appeared in the Hopper and Traugott (2003: 4) stated that content modern language. This is because the linguists found words refer to words that name objects, actions or that grammatical words such as auxiliaries or affixes qualities. They consist mostly of nouns, verbs and appeared in the modern languages were used to be adjectives. While Crystal (2008) stated that independent words. For example, Condillac (1749) grammatical words cannot act alone as part of a noticed that the suffixes indicating tense in the sentence but they must be used in conjunction with diachronic studies are from independent words. content words. Tooke (1857) found that nouns and verbs are parts of The Grammaticalization of Verbs in Thai 91 International Journal of Management and Applied Science, ISSN: 2394-7926 Volume-5, Issue-11, Nov.-2019 http://iraj.in They consist of adjectives and conjunctions. consists of metonymic process and metaphorical Adjectives can be divided into 2 categories including process (Hopper and Traugott, 2003 : 84). adjectives and adverbs while conjunctions can be In grammaticalization, there are 2 types of changes, divided into 3 categories including conjunctive meaning shift process and syntactic change participles, conjunctive nouns and prepositions. mechanism. Charatdao Intratat (1996: 33-39) stated Some Thai word categories have 2 types of meanings that the linguists who studied the grammaticalization including lexical meaning and grammatical meaning. process agreed that changes in the grammaticalized Paitaya Meesat (1997 : 214) suggested that one of the words are as follows: interesting characteristics of Thai words is the Syntactic change characteristics that facilitate the grammaticalization. 1) Obligatorification The original content word can Similarly, Ratee Jamniyom (2003) noted that the appear in every context according to meaning of a word in a sentence can be added or communication needs. However, after the modified. Therefore, it does not prefer to create new grammaticalization it can be obligatory in some words, but it‟s preferred to modified meanings and languages or in specific contexts. For example, roles of the existing words. This is in accordance with auxiliary verb must appear with verb or Jirat Hiranras (2011: 101) who suggested that a preposition must always appear with the noun number of verbs in Thai language have polysemy phrase. They cannot appear separately. properties, especially the verbs are not specific to the 2) Reanalysis The grammatical word must be characteristics of the physical behavior of the body, reanalyzed which results in changes in syntactic such as the verb "to", "have", "is" and so on. In many status of the words appear together. For range, languages, these verbs tend to go through the form the original content word with clear scope grammaticalization process and are changed from as an independent morpheme, however it is a verbs to grammatical words expressing the dependent morpheme and liked to the content relationship between other words in the sentence. word after it becomes grammatical word. In some language with work transformation system, 2.1.2 Grammaticalization some language elements may be changed or There are various definitions of grammaticalization. reduced. For example, Kurylowicz (1965 : 52) suggested that 3) Decategorialization After the grammaticalization consists of the increase of the grammaticalization, it is likely to lose range of a morpheme advancing from a content to a morphological and syntactic elements that were grammatical or from a less grammatical to a more characteristic of its initial category. This process grammatical status. This is consistent with Hopper is called decategorialization. and Traugott (2003 : 4) who defined grammaticalization as the process that content word Semantic change shows grammatical function in one context and more 1) Semantic bleaching After grammaticalization, grammatical functions and meanings are developed the original content word loses its meaning over time and become grammatical word. which called condensation. From having a From the definitions of grammaticalization, it can be complicated meaning or many meanings, it‟s seen that grammaticalization is a process in which changed into narrow or retain just some original content word becomes grammatical one or from a less meaning. grammatical to a more grammatical status. 2) Persistence The grammatical word still shows its For grammaticalization, Hopper and Traugott (2003 : original lexical meaning. 79,231) proposed that grammaticalization consists of 3) Generalization refers to the loss of the original 3 parts: 1) stimulating factors, 2) mechanisms and complicated meaning or change from having processes and 3) changes in meaning and syntax. The many meanings to describing the broader stimulating factors refer to things that make word meaning and can be used in a wider context. become a grammatical word. In the communication 4) Metaphorical extension is the most important situation, the speaker will try to say the words that semantic change in the opinions of many can convey as much as possible while the listener will linguists because learning results affect the try to cooperate in interpreting such words according grammaticalization. to the intent of the speaker. The grammatical meaning may begin with the implication in the conversation. 2.2 Methods When the implication is frequently used, such 1. Study the documents and literatures related