decategorialize

D2E1C3A1T1E1G2O1R1I1A1L1I1Z10E1

verb

To undergo decategorialization.

Scrabble 28
Ask AI about this wordChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

Meanings

verbdecategorialize (third-person singular simple present decategorializes, present participle decategorializing, simple past and past participle decategorialized)

present singular third person decategorializes · participle present decategorializing · participle past decategorialized · past decategorialized

  1. To undergo decategorialization.

    A grammaticalizing item decategorializes (Hopper 1991), losing membership of its source category. As a result of high frequency, it may become independently entrenched (Bybee 2006), receiving a kind of categorial autonomy, […]

    2010, Elizabeth Closs Traugott, Graeme Trousdale, Gradience, Gradualness and Grammaticalization, John Benjamins Publishing, →ISBN, page 75
    1 more example

    […] in which the lexeme begins to "decategorialize" (Heine et al. 1991), i.e. to lose the morphosyntactic behaviors characteristic of its original category. For example, in the English relator noun construction on top of NP, top, while clearly a noun […]

    1997, Joan L. Bybee, John Haiman, Sandra A. Thompson, Essays on Language Function and Language Type: Dedicated to T. Givón, John Benjamins Publishing, →ISBN, page 56
Cite this entry
APA

decategorialize. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/decategorialize

MLA

“decategorialize.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/decategorialize. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “decategorialize,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/decategorialize.

Source: decategorialize on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.