Abstract

In grammaticalization theory, a widely held view is that, unlike reanalysis, which creates new forms and rules in grammar, analogy does not create new grammatical structures but instead contributes only to the spread of an already innovated rule. However, based on an analysis of a dependent/defective noun mankhum ‘exact amount’, this paper argues that there are cases that support the thesis that grammaticalization may be actualized by analogy. This study addresses mankhum ‘exact amount’ from a grammaticalization perspective, based on historical and contemporary corpora and reveals a number of significant aspects of grammaticalization of mankhum. The lexeme emerged in Early Modern Korean as a variant, reinforced form of the dependent noun ma ‘exact amount’, and grammaticalized into postpositions and connectives of diverse functions, especially with variable scalar functions, such as downward, upward, and exact focus. In terms of semantic change, mankhum has undergone extensive subjectification, i.e., a lexeme objectively designating a particular amount has developed into one carrying perspectivized, scalar meanings of exact, upper- or lower-limit focus as well as one denoting the subjective interpretation of an event along the chain of causality, also with scalar meanings. In terms of the cross-categorial change, the meaning-based extension across diverse syntactic environments is likely to have been triggered by analogy based on semantic and structural affinity.