Prosodic Structure and the Origins of BA Construction
韵律结构与把字句的来源
Shengli Feng 冯胜利

Abstract 摘要
This paper explores the origins of the ba construction in Classical Chinese. It is argued that the disposal ba sentences were born in poetic environments and further evolved in natural speech. It was a result of stress shift in purposive sentences with a poetic structure. Syntactically, the disposal ba sentences originated from a purposive construction involving an Empty Operator Movement. As the last verb became more and more complex, the stress of purposive ba construction began to be shifted to the end of the sentence and the purposive ba construction gradually turned into a delimitative ba construction. Under the pressure of delimitation, the object of ba was forced to be more and more specific. Moreover, it is argued that the ba sentences in modern Chinese could also be analyzed as involving a null operator movement and constrained by prosody. Thus, prosody is one of the most important factors that motivate syntactic changes, and diachronic studies can also provide proper explanations for synchronic facts.

本文探讨把字句的来源，认为处置型把字句托生于诗歌而完成于口语，是在诗律结构中“重音”转移的结果。句法上，处置型把字句源于空运符运作的目的句。随着目的句中最后动词前后成份的日趋复杂，把字句的重音便开始后移。与此同时，目的型把字句也开始向“终届型把字句”转化。在终结句法体态模式的压力之下，把字句的宾语也随之“特指化”。文章最后指出：韵律是促发句法演变的重要因素；而历时研究同样可以为共时痕现象做出必要和充分的解释。