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. 2013 Mar 18;8(3):e58960. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0058960

Figure 12. Grammaticalization.

Figure 12

Human natural language systems historically build agreement systems by reusing existing words. The form of these words then undergoes erosion by phonological reduction processes until the marker may get lost entirely. Their meaning becomes more abstract and semantic features become purely conventional rather than grounded in the meaning of the word, through coercion.