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Hoffmann, Sebastian. Grammaticalization and English Complex Prepositions: A Corpus-Based Study. London & New York: Routledge, 2005. xiv + 214 pp. £65. ISBN 0–41536049–8, Forum for Modern Language Studies, Volume 43, Issue 1, JANUARY 2007, Pages 101–102, https://doi.org/10.1093/fmls/cql146
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The nature of a grammatical unit, the evolution of grammatical structure, and the best ways of investigating the mental representation of grammar are explored in this very accessible monograph, which makes extensive use of language corpora and focuses, via a usage-based approach, to argue that complex prepositions are a discrete grammatical class, forming meaningful elements of grammar. As such, the book is invaluable for anyone working on corpus linguistics and anyone testing grammaticalisation. We have nine chapters: “Introduction”, “Data collection and research methodology”, “Complex prepositions: indivisible units or free constructions?”, “Grammaticalization and complex prepositions”, “Complex prepositions: a diachronic overview”, “Complex prepositions in Present-day English”, “In terms of: a new discourse marker”, “Are low-frequency complex prepositions grammaticalized?” and “Conclusion”. There are numerous figures and tables, two appendixes (“The texts of the Gutenberg Corpus” and “David Lee's genre categorization scheme”), Notes (pp. 188–98), a Bibliography (pp. 199–208), an Author Index (pp. 209–11), and a Subject Index (pp. 212–14). Each chapter follows the same structure, namely introduction, discussion of appropriate areas, and conclusion. Overall, the present state of research is admirably covered, and suggestions are made for future research.
