Cover not available
Article published In:
Current Trends in Chinese Discourse
Edited by Wei Wang and Linda Tsung
[Chinese Language and Discourse 5:1] 2014
► pp. 25–52

The rise of a high transitivity marker 到 dao in contemporary Chinese

Co-evolvement of language and society

| Zhejiang University of Technology and University of California, Los Angeles
Transitivity has been approached from various discourse functional points of view. In this paper, we describe the emergence in standard Chinese of a marker of high transitivity, 到 dao ‘reach’, in syntactic contexts where it has not been attested before (e.g., 帮助到你 bangzhu dao ni ‘help you’). We argue that this emergence is associated with a number of factors: the semantic properties of the main verb, dialectal influences, and recent social trends towards consumerism and an emergent “yuppie” identity in contemporary Chinese urban life. We take the innovative uses of dao to be an instance of linguistic structure co-evolving with societal change.
Keywords: transitivity, language change, dao ‘’, grammaticalization, Emergent Grammar
Published online: 12 September 2014
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/cld.5.1.02che
References (31)
Bao, Yaming. 2008. “Shanghai Weekly: Globalization, Consumerism, and Shanghai Popular Culture.” Inter-Asia Cultural Studies 91: 557-567. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
常丹丹 (Chang, Dandan). 2008. “南京方言中的“到” [ Dao in Nanjing].” 《现代语文》 Xiandai Yuwen 111: 92-94.Google Scholar
陈昊姝 (Chen, Haoshu). 2011. “职场真人秀《职来职往》节目成功要素探析 [An inquiry into the success of the TV show Job Hunters ].” 《今传媒》 Jin Chuanmei 61: 97-98.Google Scholar
Dalrymple, Mary, and Irina Nikolaeva. 2011. Objects and Information Structure. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
董秀芳 (Dong, Xiufang). 2006. “古汉语中动名之间“于/於”的功能再认识 [A revisit to the functions of yu between V and O in Classical Chinese].” 《古汉语研究》 Guhanyu Yanjiu 21: 2-8.Google Scholar
Duranti, Alessandro. 1994. From Grammar to Politics: Linguistic Anthropology in a Western Samoan Village. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Fowler, Roger. 1991. “Critical Linguistics.” In The Linguistics Encyclopedia, ed. by Kirsten Malmkjaer, 89-93. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
. 1996. Linguistic Criticism (2nd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Fowler, Roger, Bob Hodge, Gunther Kress, and Tony Trew. 1979. Language and Control. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Francis, Winthrop Nelson, and Henry Kučera, 1964. A Standard Corpus of Present-day Edited American English, for Use with Digital Computers. Providence, RI: Department of Linguistics, Brown University.Google Scholar
Gerth, Karl. 2010. As China Goes, So Goes the World: How Chinese Consumers are Transforming Everything. New York: Hill and Wang.Google Scholar
Halliday, Michael A.K. 1985/2004. An Introduction to Functional Grammar. London: Edward Arnold.Google Scholar
Hopper, Paul, and Sandra A. Thompson. 1980. “Transitivity in Grammar and Discourse.” Language 561: 251-299. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kubler, Cornelius. 1982. “The Influence of Southern Min on the Mandarin of Taiwan.” Anthropological Linguistics 27 (2): 156-176.Google Scholar
Lee, David. 1992. Competing Discourses: Perspective and Ideology in Language. London: Longman.Google Scholar
李伟 (Li, Wei). 2009. “网络之“亲” [ Qin ‘dear’ in internet language].” 《语文建设》 Yuwen Jianshe 51: 67-69.Google Scholar
刘斐, 赵国军 (Liu, Fei, and Guojun Zhao). 2009. ““被时代”的“被组合” [The era of the bei passive and the organization of the bei construction].” 《修辞学习》 Xiuci Xuexi 51: 74-81.Google Scholar
Liu, Jin, and Hongyin Tao. 2009. “Negotiating Linguistic Identities under Globalization: Language Use in Contemporary China.” Harvard Asia Pacific Review, X (1): 7-10.Google Scholar
(eds). 2011. Chinese under Globalization: Emerging Trends in Language Use in China. Singapore: World Scientific Publishing Co.Google Scholar
Matthews, Stephen, and Virginia Yip. 2011. Cantonese: A Comprehensive Grammar. London and New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
McEnery, Anthony, and Zhonghua Xiao. 2004. “The Lancaster Corpus of Mandarin Chinese: A Corpus for Monolingual and Contrastive Language Study.” Paper presented at LREC 2004 . May 2004, Lisbon.
Simpson, Paul. 1993. Language, Ideology, and Point of View. New York: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Stubbs, Michael. 1996. Text and Corpus Analysis: Computer Assisted Studies of Language and Culture. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Sun, Hao. 2012. “Openings of Chinese Telephone Service Encounters: A Comparative Analysis across Time.” Chinese Language and Discourse 3 (2): 200-227. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Thompson, Sandra A., and Paul J. Hopper. 2001. “Transitivity, Clause Structure, and Argument Structure: Evidence from Conversation.” In Frequency and the Emergence of Linguistic Structure, ed. by Joan L. Bybee, and Paul J. Hopper, 27-60. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
邢福义 (Xing, Fuyi). 2004. “承赐型“被”字句 [Connecting types of bei passives].” 《语言研究》 Yuyan Yanjiu 11: 1-11.Google Scholar
杨 琳 (Yang, Lin). 2006. “湖北襄樊方言中的“倒”字 [ Dao in Xiangfan, Hubei].” 《现代语文》 Xiandai Yuwen 71: 86-87.Google Scholar
喻遂生 (Yu, Suisheng). 1990. “重庆方言的“倒”和“起” [ Dao and qi in Chongqing].” 《方言》 Fangyan 81: 215-222.Google Scholar
Zhang, Qing. 2005. “A Chinese Yuppie in Beijing: Phonological Variation and the Construction of a New Professional Identity.” Language in Society 34 (3): 431-466. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
郑良伟 (Zheng, Liangwei and Cheng, Robert). 1990. “辞汇扩散理论在句法变化里的应用－－兼谈台湾官话“有字句的句法变化 [Lexical Diffusion Theory and its application in syntax: A discussion of the changes in you constructions in Taiwan Mandarin].” 《语言教学与研究》 Yuyan Jiaoxue yu Yanjiu 11: 66-73.Google Scholar
周旭, 谭静怡 (Zhou, Xu, and Jingyi Tan). 2009. “网络传播词“亲”的语义再释 [Reinterpreting the internet buzz word qin ].” 《修辞学习》 Xiuci Xuexi 51: 82-87.Google Scholar
Cited by (3)

Cited by three other publications

Cong, Yan
2021. Judge-dependence in quality nouns. Asian Languages and Linguistics 2:2 ► pp. 167 ff. DOI logo
卫东, 詹 & 陶 红印
2016. 北美书面汉语语法特点探析 ——— 基于互联网中文文本的考察. Global Chinese 2:1 ► pp. 51 ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2019. Encoding Motion Events in Mandarin Chinese [Studies in Chinese Language and Discourse, 11], DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 1 august 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.