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The essential difference between grammar and lexicon is the following: The grammar is concerned with those signs which are formed regularly and which are handled analytically, while the lexicon is concerned with those signs which are formed irregularly and which are handled holistically. A sign is lexicalized if it is withdrawn from analytic access and inventorized. On the other hand, for a sign to be grammaticalized means for it to acquire functions in the analytic formation of more comprehensive signs. Both processes regularly, but not necessarily involve a reductive component. Consequently, grammaticalization is not the mirror image of lexicalization.The genesis of members of minor word classes, in particular adpositions and conjunctions, has often been treated as an instance of grammaticalization. However, minor word classes are not necessarily classes of grammatical formatives. In particular, there are more lexical and more grammatical adpositions. For instance, before auf Grund (von) 'on the basis of' can ever get grammaticalized to a grammatical preposition, it must first be lexicalized to the lexical preposition aufgrund (von). In this sense, grammaticalization presupposes lexicalization.Thus, lexicalization and grammaticalization are processes that have much in common and are, to a certain extent, parallel. The mirror image of grammaticalization is degrammaticalization, and the mirror image of lexicalization is folk etymology. 1

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Christian Lehmann University of Erfurt AbstractLanguage competence has sometimes been used as an idealized notion which somehow embodies the collective knowledge of a speech community in the person of an ideal speaker-hearer. However, the basic notion is the competence of an individual in a language. If the language in question is not the native language, it is taken for granted that the person may be proficient in the language to some degree. The standard is then generally set by native competence. However, native competence is itself a matter of degree. Consequently, objective criteria are required by which one may assess the competence of a person in one or more languages by a common standard. This presupposes a notion of 'linguistic competence' which has empirical import. The paper tries to articulate a concept of linguistic competence which can be converted into language tests. A test was devised on this basis and administered to groups of native and non-native speakers of German. The results of the experiment suggest that there is no difference in principle between native and foreign language competence, whether on theoretical or empirical grounds.

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