User:Estherliebowitz/sandbox

Plan for Lisa Green (linguist) Article

 * Create section on Personal/Early Life, if possible, add photo (Include institutional affiliations/where she has taught Hansency (talk) 17:43, 11 December 2018 (UTC)hansency)
 * Create section on her academic work on AAE
 * subheading on the specifics of her work on the TAM system of AAE
 * note the purpose, mission, and impact of her Center for the Study of African American Language
 * Create section on academic influence
 * List those scholars that influenced her, based on references she makes in her own work
 * List those scholars that she has influenced, based on who has cited her work
 * maybe stuff on her appearances in popular media

Article Evaluation
Wikipedia's page on Grammaticalization is, in general, a very well organized and explained introduction to the topic. Its introduction relies heavily on English examples, but this is more permissible when one considers the likely languages of the reader. The introduction does, however, meander a bit in defining the concept multiple times in what feels like a few different editors' voices.

The article's "History" section is a bit scatterbrained, but on the whole acceptable. It outlines a rough sketch of the concept in early modern and modern scholarship, citing specific authors and specific articles. Only a few of these authors are broken links. The sections, more so than the introduction, makes broad claims about the tendencies of "most scholars" without citing examples. The section's final sentence is worded awkwardly and is not elaborated upon.

Their "Mechanisms" section is well thought out and organized effectively, citing authors to support almost all of the article's claims. The article's authors do not seem to openly endorse one theory or the other. Their subheading on phonetic erosion is a bit longer than the other sections and at times confusing, but not overwhelmingly so.

"Clines of Grammaticality - cycles of categorical downgrading" is firstly an unwieldy section heading. Secondly, the section is full of multiple cross-linguistic examples, but then the final section describes an entirely different process. This section is heavy on hyperlinks, but light on sources.

The penultimate section on the cursorily mentioned Unidirectionality Hypothesis does well to provide both examples and counterexamples to the theory.

The final section is a smattering of previously unmentioned scholars' views on grammaticalization, listed mostly as broken links and unanalyzed for impact on the field.

The sources mostly appear to work, and the article itself may be under-categorized.

The article's talk page is largely respectful and I see examples of logical changes being made, but sometimes wanders into two speakers arguing about whether a construction is grammatical.