When secondary grammaticalization starts: a look from the constructional perspective

From a constructional point of view, a distinction between constructionalization and constructional changes is introduced, whereby a grammaticalization process is conceptualized as a sequence of constructionalization and specific constructional changes. The concept of constructionalization is relevant to detect the initiation of a change. Constructional changes that follow make sure that a new construction is involved in a grammaticalization process. Two case studies from German serve to illustrate the model. The discussion will show that, first, secondary grammaticalization may start from different points in an ongoing process of (primary, earlier) grammaticalization, and does not require this process to be completed. Second, it will be suggested that secondary grammaticalization, though displaying universal regularities, heavily hinges on language-dependent factors, as similar processes in different languages may not equally qualify as secondary grammaticalization.