Grmmz in Chinese
Elly van Gelderen
4 November 2013
What do we know about
grammaticalization/cycles?
Lexical > grammatical
loss of semantic features
some loss of phonological weight
in tree: specifier to head
higher up
To be reviewed
Two kinds of le
ba/jiang
bei
gei
dao
mei
Characteristics of East Asian
(e.g. Thai and Chinese)
•
•
•
•
No specifier > head
Lex > Gramm > more Gramm
Areal similarities
Increase in synthetic
History
1200 BCE: Archaic Chinese (oracle bones)
500 BCE-200 CE: Old Chinese (shanggu hanyu)
201 - 1000 CE: Middle Chinese (zhonggu hanyu)
1001 – 1900: Early Mandarin (jindai hanyu)
Present: Modern Mandarin (xiandai hanyu)
Liao > le
liao meaning `to complete' among other
meanings, and lai `to come' (Sun 1996:
85; 178; Shi 2002). These are typically
elements in the light verb position that
come to be generated higher.
In addition to Post, Wu (2000; 2004)
provides instances of serial verbs
grammaticalizing. Her scenario:
(1) V O liao > V-le O
V2 is reanalyzed as aspect marker
Le: V > ASP
(1)
Zhang San ca-gan-le boli
Zhang San wipe-dry-LE glass
`Zhang San wiped the glass dry.'
(Sybesma 1999: 76).
(2) VP
V
XP
ca X
YP
le
DP
Y
boli
gan (Sybesma 1999: 76)
Sun (1996 chapter 4) on le
Two le-elements: aspectual suffix on V and
sentential `clitic’:
(1) wo chi le fan le
I
eat ASP food ASP
`I have eaten’.
(2) Negative bu only with final le (p. 84)
(3) The first is a suffix and the second a
clitic.
Origin is from: le, ye, liao, lai
- Suffix < liao
- Clitic < lai `come’ (p. 92):
(3)shenmo
chu qu lai
12th C
what
place go LAI
`Where have you been?’ (Sun 98)
Grmmz of the two le-elements
Sun (102-107)
loss of phonology
specialization
bondedness (must be followed by NP)
scope
From Huang
Aspectual suffixes:
Mandarin has developed at least 3 aspectual suffixes:
zhe, le, guo. Their presence entails an Aspectual
projection with ASP that attracts the verb (V-to-ASP).
(auxiliary aspects (mei)you & zai) are also available).
Min-Taiwanese does not have the suffixal aspect
markers, but uses auxliary aspects (u, te). No V-to-T.
Cantonese has even richer suffixal aspects, including
–sai ‘all’, etc. V-to-ASP-to-x, higher than Mandarin
Cantonese > Mandarin > Min
Ba: V > OM
(1)
zui ba zhu-gen-zi
xi
kan
drunk BA dogwood careful look
`While drunk, I carefully took the dogwood
and carefully looked at it', or `While drunk,
I carefully looked at the dogwood'.
(2) wo ba shu mai le
I
BA bookbuy PF
`I bought the book'
(Li & Thompson 1981: 21)
Old Chinese
(1) Yu qing ba tian zhi rui-ling ...
Yu himself take heaven ZHI mandate
`Yu himself took the mandate of heaven ...'
(Me-zi, Li & Thompson 1974: 202)
(2) ... yin
ba jian
kan
should
hold sword
see
`I should take the sword and see it'
(Tang dynasty poem, Li & Thompson
1974: 202-3)
Chen Chen Sun 2007
(1) vP
wo
v
ba
v'
ASPP
shu
ASP'
ASP
VP
ba shu
V'
V
mai
Sun 1996: ba and jiang `replace’ yi
Zhu (1957) and Bennett (1981): yi is
originally used in Old Chinese and
expanded.
(1)
yao yi tianxia yu shun
Yao YI world give Shun
`Yao gave the world to Shun’
(Mengzi Wanzhang shang, Sun 59-60)
Grmmz: Sun 78-81
Sun uses Lehmann
- Phonological reduction
- specialization (Jiang no longer ok in
Mandarin; only ba is)
- bondedness (must be followed by NP)
- scope (only part of VP)
Jiang: Archaic > Tang
(1)
Wu jiang
da che
not take big wagon
`Don’t take the big wagon.’
(2) Jiang tianzi ming yi zongrongjie
take emperor order give commander
`He took the emperor’s order to give to …’
(both from Hwang 2000: 27)
To Modern Cantonese
(3)
Zhengfu jiang xin jihua
gongbu le
government OM new plan
publicize ASP
`The government has publicized a new
plan.’ (Hwang 2000: 29)
(jiang now needs other V and cannot be marked
by le)
bei: ‘receive’ > passive
This is work by Bennett (1981), Sun (1996:
63), Post (2007) etc:
(1) bei shui han zhi hai
Old Chinese
receive water cold ZHI damage
`Receive damage from flood and cold’
(2) bei huo shao-si
PASS fire burn-die
‘.. was burned to death by fire.’
Gei `give’: Serial V > P
(1)
ta gei Li Si xie le xin
s/he give LS write ASP letter
`S/he wrote a letter to/for Li Si.’
(Hwang 2000: 11)
(le doesn’t appear after gei)
Similar with ho in Southern Min and pun in
Hakka (see Ivy’s work)
Old Chinese > Mandarin Chinese
(1)
fu
yu
gui
shi
ren
zhi
suo yu
ye
Riches and honor this men GEN NOM desire P
‘Riches and honor, this is men’s desire.’
(Whitman 2000: 234)
(12)
jiang shi
xiang jing-feijibo
ben suo
will
D
CL
funding-transfer
D
organization
‘He will transfer these funds to our organization.’
(Academia Sinica Balanced Corpus of Modern Chinese)
Shi/zhi: dem>copula
(15)
(16)
(17)
(18)
Shi shi
lie
gui
Old Chinese
this is
violent ghost
‘This is a violent ghost.’ (Whitman 2000: 234)
Zhe shi
lie
gui
Mandarin
‘This is a violent ghost.’ (Mei Ching Ho p.c.)
Shi
wo de
zuo
Mandarin
be
1S
POSS fault
‘It’s is me (who is) at fault.’ (Hui-Ling Yang, p.c.)
Shi wo
Mandarin
be
1S
‘It’s me.’ (Hui-Ling Yang, p.c.)
Chinese and Thai
(1)
ta dao Zhongguoqu le
he to China
go PF
`He went to China.'
(Heine & Kuteva 2002: 45)
(2) Dεεŋ sɔɔn leeg haj Sudaa haj phyan
Dang teach arithmetic give Suda give
friend
`Dang taught arithmetic to Suda for his
friend'. (Bisang 1998: 771)
Mei
(1)
(2)
wo mei you shu
I
not be book
`I don't have a book'.
Yao Shun ji mo ...
Yao Shun since died
Chinese
Old Chinese
`Since Yao and Shun died, ...'
(Mengzi, Tengwengong B, from Lin 2002: 5)
(3)
yu de wang ren mei kunan, ... Early Ch
wish PRT died person not-be suffering
`If you wish that the deceased one has no suffering, ...'
(Dunhuang Bianwen, from Lin 2002: 5-6).
Conclusion
History of Chinese is full of
V > AUX,
V > P,
D > T,
(V > Adv)
not of full phrase > head
Adverbs are possibly phrasal?
(1) Shihua shuo zhezi
shi ni zuo le
Honest say this-time be you wrong LE
`Honestly this time you were wrong'.
(Ji 2006)