degrammaticalize

English

Etymology

de- +‎ grammaticalize

Verb

degrammaticalize (third-person singular simple present degrammaticalizes, present participle degrammaticalizing, simple past and past participle degrammaticalized)

1. (transitive) To make less grammatical or not grammatical.
2. (linguistics, transitive) To cause (an inflectional ending, etc) to undergo degrammaticalization.
   • 2002, Ilse Wischer, Gabriele Diewald, New Reflections on Grammaticalization, John Benjamins Publishing, →ISBN, page 45:

     Using diachronic evidence from Swedish, I will show that inflectional endings may be maintained as “less cumulative” inflections, or even degrammaticalize into a derivational suffix or a clitic.

   • 2004, Pragmatics: Quarterly Publication of the International Pragmatics Association:

     […] try to provide empirical evidence for the thesis that inflectional affixes can degrammaticalize into a derivational suffix or a clitic.