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Journal of Historical Pragmatics: Online-First Articles

From affirmation to concession

Diachrony of Modern Chinese concessive connective kě shì (‘but’) and its implications for connective formation

ORCID logo | Sun Yat-sen University
 | China Three Gorges University
The Modern Chinese concessive connective kě shì (e.g., kàn shàngqù bù zěnmeyàng, kě shì chī qǐlái què tǐng bùcuò [‘it looks not so good, but it tastes quite good’]) did not develop from a clause-initial emphatic kě shì structure that has a pragmatic counter expectation meaning (e.g., kě shì tā shuōde [‘it was really she who said it’]), but from an affirmative response marker kě shì in Early Modern Chinese (e.g., kě shì ne, míng’er nǐ sòngwǒ shénme? [‘quite right, what do you send me as gifts tomorrow?’]). Shì in the connective did not develop from a copula shì, but from an adjective shì meaning ‘right, true’ (e.g., rán, shì yě [‘right, it’s true’]). The hypothesised pathway may be explained as the grammaticalisation of an affirmative response marker used in the context of token agreement, and may be adopted to account for the formation of an Old Chinese concessive connective rán (e.g., rán Zhèng wáng, zǐ yì yǒu bùlì yān [‘but if Zheng State perishes, it serves you no good, either’]). It gives support to an extra-clausal source for the formation of a sentence connective.
Keywords: affirmation, concession, grammaticalisation, kě shì , rán
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Data collection
  • 3.Modern Chinese kě shì structures
  • 4.Literature review
    • 4.1 Zhang (2004) and Yao (2007)
    • 4.2 Chang (2016) and Zhan (2017)
  • 5.Formation of concessive connective kě shì in Early Modern Chinese
  • 6.From affirmation to concession: A grammaticalisation account
    • 6.1Grammaticalisation of token agreement strategy
    • 6.2Formation of Old Chinese concessive connective rán
  • 7.Conclusion and further comments
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
Published online: 19 November 2024
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jhp.21009.lon
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