Rescuing grammaticalization from construction hegemony: the evolution of the modal <i>better</i>

Abstract The present paper examines the relationship between grammaticalization and constructionalization in the context of recent studies on Diachronic Construction Grammar. Building on the concept of “Event Schemas” in language change, it explores the diachronic evolution of the English modal construction BETTER (in the forms had better , ’d better, and plain better + v ) since Old English times. The proposed study demonstrates that although this could be regarded as a typical case of ordinary grammatical constructionalization it is better explained as grammaticalization through Event Schemas, where the conceptual source elements of possession and evaluation remain evident throughout the construction’s entire diachronic journey. In this way, the possessive Event Schema known as the “Goal Schema”, likely grammaticalized into an “Action Schema” (explaining the introduction of the copula have found in present-day English), with the meanings of evaluation associated with the predicate adjective, better, co-existing as an Evaluative Schema. Thus, grammaticalization is manifested in the observed continuity of both possessive and evaluative semantic coordinates in the evolution of had better , which would not be permitted under typical constructionalization accounts that require parallel changes in both form and meaning.