The preceding case studies allow a set of generalizations on the process of reanalysis:

1. Reanalysis is a process of grammatical variation sui generis. It is, however, based on an analogy with an existent grammatical construction which motivates the reanalysis by providing a model for its output.
2. Reanalysis as such is an undirected process; it goes into the direction of its model. Its direction in the particular case depends on the paradigmatic relation between the original structure and the structure of the model chosen for reanalysis.
3. Reanalysis is not a gradual, but an instant change. Thus, a given construction either has the original or the target structure; there is no intermediate step. Reanalysis differs in this from gradual processes like grammaticalization.
4. There are historical cases such as the reanalysis of English noun forms involving the plural suffix or the indefinite article, or the evolution of the German dative possessive attribute, which have nothing to do with grammaticalization.
5. On the other hand, a historical change may be complex in involving grammaticalization and reanalysis at the same time. More precisely, a reanalysis may occur as a component of a grammaticalization process. Examples include the grammaticalization of the periphrastic perfect in Germanic and Romance languages such as Old English and Portuguese, resp., as well as other cases of grammaticalization to be reviewed in later chapters. Since reanalysis presupposes an analogy, such cases of grammaticalization also involve an analogical change.
6. While such cases do exist, grammaticalization does not reduce to reanalysis. The following features of grammaticalization are not covered by reanalysis:
• Grammaticalization is a gradual process, reanalysis is not. Reanalysis involves exactly two stages, the input and the output. Grammaticalization may involve more stages. Thus, a given phase of a grammaticalization process may involve a reanalysis. But such a phase may be preceded or followed by more phases of a uniform grammaticalization process which have nothing to do with reanalysis. Examples are, again, found in the various historical processes of auxiliarization.
• Grammaticalization is a directed process, reanalysis is not. Depending on the choice of the input construction and of the analogical model, reanalysis may run in opposite directions. Grammaticalization involves loss of autonomy, esp. of weight, and typically a change from a more lexical to a more grammatical item.
• Since grammaticalization does not presuppose an analogical model, it can be innovative, creating something genuinely new. Examples include the article system in modern Indo-European languages and the numeral classifiers in Indo-Iranian languages such as Persian.