Overview

This study presents new thoughts about the grammaticalization of Chinese function words. It demonstrates that the generalization of meaning and the initial categorical change of one word often occurs in local domains. The concept of locality explains why most Chinese functional words, especially Chinese prepositions, are developed in serial verb constructions. This book has two interwoven components that demonstrate the above hypothesis: the first component is a description of the development of several Chinese prepositions and conjunctions, and the second component is a theoretical explanation of their changes. The goal of the two components is to illustrate the locality constraint of reanalysis and the conditions of change from synchronic and diachronic domains. Synchronically, this book deals mainly with two theoretical issues: the framework of the locality constraint of reanalysis and the cause of language change in Chapter 1, 2 and 7. Diachronically, this book has surveyed several Chinese function words from the oracle-bone inscriptions (1250 BC - 1050 BC), the earliest Chinese written document, to vernaculars till the Yuan dynasty (AD 1271 - 1368) in Chapter 3, 4, 5 and 6. The purpose of this book as a whole is to demonstrate that initial categorical change in terms of grammaticalization often occurs in a local context semantically and syntactically, and to illustrate the mechanisms and cline of the development of Chinese prepositions from synchronic and diachronic perspectives.

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9780773414709

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In contrast to a few other works on the grammaticalization of function words in the field, the present book takes the earliest meaning of not only the word ji but other words seriously. This is absolutely essential because the very foundation of grammaticalization processes rests on finely tuned analyses of the synchronic meanings of target words. (Dr. Ken-ichi Takashima Professor Emeritus of the University of British Columbia)

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