Grammaticalization and Diachronic Structural Pattern

The paper posits the hypothesis that if a form or construction entering a process of grammaticalization has a diachronic structural pattern, the grammaticalization may become entrenched and strengthened; it can recategorize and move easily into other grammatical areas, can make more complex diachronic paths, and will progress better than a change without a pattern. The paper poses two types of structural pattern: an intraparadigmatic one and an interparadigmatic one. The empirical evidence is the grammaticalization of the predication dice que into the evidential discourse marker dizque and later into the adjective dizque. The paper examines two patterns supporting this grammaticalization: first, the various grammaticalizations undergone by the verb decir into different discourse particles, an intraparadigmatic pattern, and second, three predications that undergone the same diachronic path: que es que > quesque; puede que > pueque; vaya > ¡vaya!, an interparadigmatic pattern.