Grammaticalization, lexicalization, and constructionalization

Linguistic change is considered as the collective entrenchment of an innovative language trait which was first produced by individual language users when striving for communicative success and efficiency. Over the last few decades, different theories have been developed in order to understand how and why these processes of language change come about. This chapter zooms in on the main differences and similarities between three major approaches to these phenomena, namely grammaticalization, lexicalization, and the more recent diachronic construction grammar