A linguist observes that the word "going to" transitions from expressing physical movement to indicating future intent. Which mechanism explains why this semantic shift commonly occurs in language?

💡 Explanation

Grammaticalization explains this change, because it involves semantic bleaching where a lexical item loses specific semantic content and becomes more grammatical. Therefore, "going to" shifts from literal motion to a future marker, rather than phonetic reduction or analogical leveling, which affect sound and form respectively.

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