The Grammaticalization of Indefinite Pronouns

Abstract This chapter discusses the grammaticalization of indefinite pronouns, focusing on the ways in which such pronouns arise and change over time in different languages and the regularities in these changes. It first considers diachronic typology before describing four main source constructions for indefiniteness markers: the ‘dunno’ type, the ‘want/pleases’ type, the ‘it may be’ type, and the ‘no matter’ type. It then examines the six parameters of grammaticalization, three of which are paradigmatic (integrity, paradigmaticity, paradigmatic variability) and three are syntagmatic (scope, bondedness, syntagmatic variability). It also looks at desemanticization, with particular emphasis on three competing theories of semantic grammaticalization, before concluding with an overview of the indefinites that express the free-choice functions and their use as true universal quantifiers.