Formal Variation and Colloquiality in Korean: Implications on the Grammaticalization Theory

Language variation is ubiquitous across languages. This paper focuses on one particular type of variation, i.e. one characterizable as a result of additive processes, an unexpected state of affairs in view of such widely accepted principles of grammaticalization as attrition and loss . The variational forms consist of a shorter, older, form, and a number of longer, more recent forms, which are innovative forms often found in casual and colloquial styles. This counter-directional change, i.e. phonological enrichment rather than phonological reduction, offers interesting implications on the grammaticalization theory, including: (i) the grammaticalization processes in terms of both form and meaning cannot be uniformly characterized as reductive processes; (ii) the additive processes are mostly motivated by the desire for semantic reinforcement, and recruit paradigmatically versatile particles with weak, yet not devoid of, semantics, suggesting exaptation ; and (iii) some of the additive processes are purely phonologically motivated in that the ever-shrinking forms are augmented by apparently meaningless sounds whose sole function is to increase the phonological volume to ensure better auditory perception. All these point to the fact that grammaticalization paths are by no means monolinear and uniformly unidirectional, but involve fluctuations and variations especially along such parameters as styles and genres.