FROM MOTION VERB TO LINKING ELEMENT: DISCOURSE EXPLANATIONS FOR THE GRAMMATICALIZAITON OF JIU IN MANDARIN CHINESE

從行動動詞到連接成份：中文“就”語法化的言談模式分析

劉美君(Meichun Liu)

《Journal of Chinese Linguistics》 25卷2期 (1997/06) Pp. 258-289

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.

並列摘要

本文旨在以中文「就」的語意語法變化為例，說明交談功能，特別是“敘事模式”在語法化的過程中所扮演的決定性角色。「就」由一個空間位移的動詞轉化為連接前後事件（因果、時間等）的副詞，其關鍵在於中古中文時期，敘事文體所出現的一種「就」的普遍用法：「就」可出現在另一動詞前，描述某前因所導致的後果事件（位移＋動作）。這種連續性的敘事結構，加上「就」後直接有另一動詞，導致「就」的動詞成份降低，而被重新分析為標示一後果事件、用於連接的語法成份。本文的完成，為長久以來學者們所深信、由“語境語用”為主導的語法化可能，提供一具體實例。