From Motion Verb to Linking Element Discourse Explanations for the Grammaticalizaiton of jiu in Mandarin Chinese
从行动动词到连接成分: 中文“就”语法化的言谈模式分析
Mei-Chun Liu 刘美君

Abstract 摘要
This paper aims to explore the crucial role of discourse patterning in the grammaticalization of JIU from a motion verb to an antecedent-consequent linking element. By tracing the usages of JIU at various stages of Chinese and detailing its discourse-functional characteristics, this paper suggests that the recurrent pattern of narrative sequencing with the use of preverbal, serial-verb JIU around Middle Chinese motivates the re-interpretation of JIU as a consequent-event marker. With sequential events, JIU originally signals a spatial movement as the ‘consequent’ of a preceding event; eventually, from coding a consequent event, JIU itself gets grammaticalized as the marker of a consequent. What is involved is a detranstivization/decategorization process of verbal JIU, followed by a recategorization of JIU into a non-verbal element. This work clearly exemplifies a discourse-motivated case grammaticalization, along with a conceivable cognitive-semantic account. It bridges theoretically and methodologically the two major approaches of grammaticalization.

本文旨在以中文「就」的语意语法变化为例，说明交谈功能，特别是“叙事模式”在语法化的过程中所扮演的决定性角色。「就」由一个空间位移的动词转化为连接前后事件（因果、时间等）的副词，其关键在于中古中文时期，叙事文体所出现的一种「就」的普遍用法：「就」可出现在另一动词前，描述某前因所导致的后果事件（位移 + 动作）。这种连续性的叙事结构，加上「就」后直接有另一动词，导致「就」的动词成份降低，而被重新分析为标示一后果事件、用于连接的语法成份。本文的完成，为长久以来学者们所深信、由“语境语用”为主导的语法化可能，提供一具体实例。

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