Gives insights into the genesis, development and organization of grammatical categories in a number of languages world-wide. The papers in this volume are divided into two sections, the first concerned with general method and the second with issues of directionality.

1. Foreword; 2. Introduction (by Traugott, Elizabeth Closs); 3. I. General Method; 4. On some principles of grammaticization (by Hopper, Paul J.); 5. On the gradualness of grammaticalization (by Lichtenberk, Frantisek); 6. Serial verbs and the mental reality of 'event': Grammatical vs. cognitive packaging (by Givon, T.); 7. Grammaticalization as retextualization (by Nichols, Johanna); 8. II. Directionality; 9. From cognition to grammar: Evidence from African languages (by Heine, Bernd); 10. The semantics-pragmatics of grammaticalization revisited (by Traugott, Elizabeth Closs); 11. The de dicto domain in language (by Frajzyngier, Zygmunt); 12. The grammaticallization of rhetorical questions in Tamil (by Herring, Susan C.); 13. Some grammaticalization changes in Estonian and their implications (by Campbell, Lyle); 14. The last stages of grammatical elements; contractive and expansive desemanticization (by Greenberg, Joseph H.); 15. Substrates, calquing and grammaticalization in Melanesian pidgin (by Keesing, Roger M.)