What Role Do Iconicity and Analogy Play in Grammaticalization?

This chapter relates iconicity, analogy, and grammaticalization more closely to one another so as to explore to what extent iconicity and analogy are involved in grammaticalization. The general aim of the chapter is to present a better understanding of what lies behind grammaticalization, to learn not only why is it a phenomenon that we often encounter in language change, but also why grammaticalization does not happen in each case where circumstances are similar, and why it does not always happen in the same way. The chapter focuses on language processing and the role played by analogy in language learning and change, relating older neogrammarian and psycholinguistic ideas with more recent ones in cognitive science. It presents some examples from the history of English serve to show how analogy is involved in processes generally considered to be cases of grammaticalization.