Explaining the irreversibility of grammaticalization

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The paper explores the concept of unidirectionality in grammaticalization, primarily through Haspelmath's usage-based theory of language change. It highlights the maxim of extravagance as a key factor for irreversibility in this process. Geurts critiques this notion, arguing it is unnecessary for explaining unidirectionality. Additionally, Huelva Unternbäumen expands on Haspelmath's ideas by identifying three essential conditions that must be met for both grammaticalization and degrammaticalization to occur, providing a deeper understanding of these linguistic phenomena.