Grammatical categories and grammaticalization in the Soviet and Polish research: A contribution to the previously neglected chapter in the history of linguistics

This article critically reviews the main trends in the research discussion on linguistic, in particular grammatical categories, which took place in Soviet Russia and Poland mainly in the 50s through the early 80s and has had repercussions until recent times in Russian and Polish morphological and syntactic theory as well as in lexicology. Some historical background is given concerning the conceptual roots of the relevant debates in the post-war period. The main threads of research reviewed here are compared to mainstream work on grammaticalization, which became popular in Western linguistics starting in the 70s and has been producing a host of literature and research in the rise of grammatical forms and oppositions. This research, however, has basically concentrated only on morphological and phonological changes of autosemantic (referential) morphemes (or words) gradually becoming elements dependent on other words or within larger, but holistic syntagmatic units. I call this the morpheme-based approach. Besides this, we should distinguish two other approaches: construction-based and category-based ones. These three points of view are not mutually exclusive to each other, but rather complement each other.