grammaticalize
American
[gruh-mat-i-kuh-lahyz]
/ grəˈmæt ɪ kəˌlaɪz /
especially British,
gramaticalise
verb (used with object)
Linguistics.
grammaticalized,
grammaticalizing
-
to convert (a content word or part of one) into a functor, as in using OE līc, “body,” as a suffix in adjectives and adverbs, such as OE frēondlīc, “friendly.”
-
to represent (semantic features) by grammatical categories, as plurality in English or gender in French.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of grammaticalize
First recorded in 1935–40; grammatical + -ize
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
