This book presents the state of the art in research on grammaticalization, the process by which lexical items acquire grammatical function, grammatical items get additional functions, and grammars are created. Leading scholars from around the world introduce and discuss the core theoretical and methodological bases of grammaticalization, report on work in the field, and point to promising directions for new research. They represent every relevant theoretical perspective and approach. Research on grammaticalization and its role in linguistic change encompasses work on languages from every major linguistic family. Its results offer valuable insights for all theoretical frameworks, including generative, construction, and cognitive grammar, and relates to work in fields such as phonology, sociolinguistics, and language acquisition. The handbook provides a full, critical assessment of every aspect of this research. It is divided into five parts, of which the first two are devoted to theory and method, the third and fourth to work in linguistic domains, classes, and cateogories, and the fifth to case studies of grammaticalization in a range of languages. It will be an indispensable source of information and inspiration for all those who wish to know more about this fascinating and important field.

...reading this handbook from cover to cover is a pleasure... * Natalie Operstein, LINGUIST List *
the handbook has something to offer for all scholars of language change, regardless of their familiarity with grammaticalisation studies. It contains several excellent introductory chapters into the field ... it is not just an excellent comprehensive state of the art, but through many of its chapters it also contributes to and furthers ongoing debates, including that of the validity of grammaticalisation itself. * Tine Breban, Journal of Historical Pragmatics *
The Handbook succeeds in covering the field at its present stage of development in a comprehensive and persuasive way, and despite of the rapid development of grammaticalization studies it will, without a doubt, fulfill the role as a valid introduction to grammaticalization studies for many years to come and, in addition, function as an important tool for established researchers of the field. * Jens Norgard-Sorensen, Studies in Language *

Heiko Narrog is Associate Professor of Linguistics at Tohoku University. He has published in Japanese and American journals on diachronic syntax. His books include Japanische Verbflexive und flektierbare Suffixe (Harrassowitz 1999) and Modality in Japanese (Benjamins 2009). He is currently working on a book, Modality, Subjectivity, and Semantic Change: A Cross-Linguistic Perspective, to be published by OUP in 2012. Bernd Heine is Emeritus Professor at the Institute of African Studies (Institut für Afrikanistik), University of Cologne. His 33 books include Possession: Cognitive sources, forces, and grammaticalization (CUP, 1997); Auxiliaries: Cognitive forces and grammaticalization (OUP, 1993); Cognitive Foundations of Grammar (OUP USA, 1997); with Derek Nurse, African Languages: An introduction (CUP, 2000), A Linguistic Geography of Africa (CUP, 2007); with Tania Kuteva, World Lexicon of Grammaticalization (CUP, 2002), Language Contact and Grammatical Change (CUP, 2005), The Changing Languages of Europe (OUP, 2006), and The Genesis of Grammar (OUP, 2008).