Meanings
plural obligatorifications
- countableuncountablehuman sciencesThe act or process of, or an instance of, (something) becoming or being made (more) obligatory, especially as part of the process of grammaticalization.
Mandarin and Khmer and possibly other Southeast Asian languages may be characterized as resisting obligatorification of their meaningful morphology. Could this have anything to do with their penchant for decorative morphology?
2013, Jeffrey P. Williams, The Aesthetics of Grammar: Sound and Meaning in the Languages of Mainland Southeast Asia, →ISBN, page 791 more example
Following Jakobson 1959 [1972] and Lehmann 1982 [1995], grammaticalization for most observers always entails obligatorification. As Jakobson memorably put it, languages differ not in what they can say, but in what they must: [...]
2011, John Haiman, Cambodian: Khmer, →ISBN, page 137Synonyms: obligatorization
Synonyms & antonyms
nounThe act or process of, or an instance of, (something) becoming or being made (more) obligatory, especially as part of the process of grammaticalization.
Origin
Cite this entry
obligatorification. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/obligatorification
“obligatorification.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/obligatorification. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “obligatorification,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/obligatorification.
Source: obligatorification on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.