Lexicalization and grammaticalization

Abstract Both lexical and grammatical elements involve particular perspectives in their description of reality. This perspectivity is manifest in the semantic transparency of these linguistic items, revealing metaphorical or metonymic interpretations of reality. Perspectivity is present even in semantically not transparent linguistic items, but detectable only through a historical analysis. This transpires in the etymology of these elements often through metonymic or metaphorical semantic changes. The change mostly starts out from an initial metonymic construal, which often turns into a more abstract metaphorical conceptualization. This is illustrated from a cross-linguistic perspective through the example of the lexicalization and grammaticalization of the notion of “future” by examining the various manifestations of perspectivization in these historical processes in English, German, Swedish and Hungarian.