Procedure of functional transposition analysis in the English language

Abstract The paper presents an attempt to develop a procedure of researching functional transposition in English. Functional transposition is interpreted as a diachronicsynchronic functional process and its outcome, which presupposes the ability of lexical units, by means of grammaticalization and lexicalization and without application of any morphological and/or syntactical markers, to acquire and realize functions inherent to other word classes. The procedure consists of four major stages which cover the entire process of transposition of each lexical unit from its origin and up to the current use. The main methods include: definition and componential analyses, historical analysis of origin, diachronic corpus analysis, and synchronic corpus analysis. In the present paper, the procedure is verified with a case study of the lexical unit ‘IN’. It has been established that in the case of ‘IN’, functional transposition started from the category of prepositions. The tendency of its development shows that after a gradual decrease and stabilization, observed in Early and Late Modern English, respectively, functional transposition of ‘IN’ has undergone a dramatic increase in Present-Day English. It is explained by formation of new sociocultural situations and institutionalization of numerous patterns of functionally transposed ‘IN’ in the language.