Chapter published in:
Topics in Theoretical Asian Linguistics: Studies in honor of John B. Whitman
Edited by Kunio Nishiyama, Hideki Kishimoto and Edith Aldridge
[Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 250] 2018
► pp. 157–180

Chapter 8
Resultative and termination

A unified analysis of Middle Chinese VP-YI

| University of Washington | Humboldt University Berlin
| University of Washington | Humboldt University Berlin

This paper proposes an account of the reanalysis of the Chinese morpheme 已yǐ from an intransitive verb meaning ‘end, terminate’ into a functional category marking completive aspect. We posit that this grammaticalization was triggered by the loss of aspectual affixes, prompting YI to be reinterpreted from a lexical verb to a secondary predicate supplying the endpoint to an event expressed by a preceding predicate. The use of YI as a secondary predicate was made possible in part by changes in Chinese VP structure which allowed an endpoint-denoting secondary predicate to occupy a VP-internal position in this period.

Keywords: aspect, grammaticalization, Middle Chinese, resultative, telicity
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Aspect in Late Archaic Chinese
  • 3.Evolution of YI from verb to secondary predicate
    • 3.1Late Archaic Chinese YI
    • 3.2Structural reanalysis
  • 4.Extension of aspectual YI as a native development
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 12 December 2018
https://doi.org/10.1075/la.250.09ald
References
Aldridge, E.
2010 Clause-internal wh-movement in Archaic Chinese. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 19(1): 1–36.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Baxter, W. H.
1992 A Handbook of Old Chinese Phonology. Berlin: De Gruyter.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cao, G.
1999 Shilun Hanyu dongtai zhuci de xingcheng guocheng (On the formation of aspectual particles in Chinese). In Linguistic Essays in Honor of Mei Tsu-lin: Studies in Chinese Historical Syntax, A. Peyraube & C. Sun (eds.), 19–32. Paris: Center de Recherches Linguistiques sur l’Asie Orientale.Google Scholar
Chao, Y. R.
1968 A Grammar of Spoken Chinese. Berkeley CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Cheng, L. L. -S. & C. -T. J. Huang
1994 On the argument structure of resultative compounds. In In Honor of William S-Y. Wang: Interdisciplinary Studies on Language and Language Change, M. Y. Chen & O. J. L. Tzeng (eds.), 187–221. Taipei: Pyramid Press.Google Scholar
Cheung, S. Hong-nin
1977 Perfective particles in the ‘Bian-wen’ language. Journal of Chinese Linguistics 5: 55–74.Google Scholar
Chou, F.
1962 Zhongguo gudai yufa: Gouci bian (Historical grammar of Ancient Chinese: Morphology). Taipei: Academia Sinica Institute of History and Philology.Google Scholar
Downer, G.
1959 Derivation by tone-change in Classical Chinese. Bulletin of the School of African and Oriental Studies 22: 258–290.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Haudricourt, A. G.
1954 Comment reconstruire le chinois archaïque. Word 10(2–3): 351–364.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hong, B. & Yang, Z.
2010 Xian Qin Hanyu ‘jian’ lei dongci de qingzhuo jiaoti ji qi laiyuan (On the voicing alternation in ‘jian’ type verbs in pre-Qin Chinese). Minzu Yuwen 2010(1): 22–28.Google Scholar
Huang K.
1992 Jingdian shiwen dongci yidu xin tan (New discussion of the different readings of verbs in the Jingdian shiwen). Taiwan: Xuesheng shuju.Google Scholar
Jiang, S.
1999 Hanyu dongjieshi chansheng de shidai (The dating of the emergence of the verb-resultative construction in Chinese). Hanxue Yanjiu 6.Google Scholar
Shaoyu, Jiang 蒋绍愚
2001 ‘Shishuo xinyu’, ‘Qi min yaoshu’, Luoyang qielan ji’, Xianyu jing’, Baiyu jing’ zhong de “yi”, “jing”, “qi”, “bi” ‘世说新语’,‘齐民要术’,‘洛阳伽蓝记’,‘贤愚经’,‘百喻经’,中的“已”,“竟”,“讫”, “毕” Yuyan yanjiu 1(42): 73–78.Google Scholar
Jiang Shaoyu
2007 Yuyan jiechu de yige anli – zai tan V (0) yi. (A case of language contact – another discussion of V (O) yǐ) Yuyanxue luncong 36.Google Scholar
Jin Lixin
2005 Han Zang yu de wangchengti houzhui *-s. Minzu yuwen 2: 1–6.Google Scholar
2006 Shanggu Hanyu xingtai yanjiu (Research on Old Chinese morphology). Hefei: Huangshan shushe.Google Scholar
Karlgren, B.
1933 Word families in Chinese. Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities 5: 9–120.Google Scholar
Kiefer, F.
2010 Areal-typological aspects of word-formation: The case of aktionsart-formation in German, Hungarian, Slavic, Baltic, Romani and Yiddish. In Variation and Change in Morphology selected papers from the 13th International Morphology Meeting, Vienna, February 2008, [Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 310] F. Rainer, W. U. Dressler, D. Kastovsky, H. C. Luschützky (eds.), 129–148. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
LaPolla, R. J.
2003 Morphosyntax: An Overview. In The Sino-Tibetan Languages, G. Thurgood & R. LaPolla (eds.), 22–41. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Liang, Y.
2005 Xihan jieguo buyu de fazhan (Development of the resultative complement construction in the Western Han period). Guhanyu Yanjiu 66: 34–40.Google Scholar
Lü, S.
1991 [1980] Xiandai Hanyu babai ci (Eight hundred words in Modern Chinese). Beijing: Commercial Press.Google Scholar
Mei, T.
1980 Si sheng bie yi zhong de shijian cengci. Zhongguo Yuwen 6: 427–443.Google Scholar
1988 Neibu nigou Hanyu san li [Three examples of internal reconstruction in Chinese]. Zhongguo Yuwen 204(3): 169–181.Google Scholar
1991 Cong Handai de ‘dong-sha’, ‘dong-si’ lai kan dongbu jiegou de fazhan (A look at the development of the verb-resultative construction from ‘V-kill’ and ‘V-die’ in the Han period). Yuyanxue Luncong 16: 112–136.Google Scholar
1999 Xian Qin Liang Han de yizhong wancheng mao jushi (One type of perfective aspect construction in the Pre-Qin and Han periods). Zhongguo Yuwen 4.Google Scholar
2015 Proto-Sino-Tibetan morphology and its modern Chinese correlates. In Oxford Handbook of Chinese Linguistics, W. S. -Y. Wang & C. Sun (eds.), 57–66. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Meisterernst, B.
2011 Aspectual structures in Buddhist Chinese texts. In Hànwèn Fódiǎn yǔyén xué 漢文佛典語言學, 58–99. Taiwan: Fagu Fojiao xue yuan.Google Scholar
2015a Tense and Aspect in Han Period Chinese: A Linguistic Study of the Shǐjì[Trends in Modern Linguistics 274]. Berlin: DeGruyter.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2015b New issues in Chinese grammar: The morpho-syntax of the aspectual system in Late Archaic Chinese. In Minzu dianji wenzi yanjiu 民俗典籍文字研究 (Studies on folklore, classics and Chinese character), Vol. 15. Beijing: Shangwu yinshu guan.Google Scholar
2016 The syntax of aspecto-temporal adverbs from Late Archaic to Early Medieval Chinese. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 25(2): 143–181. DOI: DOI logo.Google Scholar
Norman, J.
1988 Chinese. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar
Ohta, T.
1958 Chugokugo rekishi bunpo(Historical grammar of Chinese). Tokyo: Konan Shoin.Google Scholar
Pulleyblank, E. G.
1973 Some new hypotheses concerning word families in Chinese. Journal of Chinese Linguistics 1: 111–124.Google Scholar
1991 Lexicon of Reconstructed Pronunciation in Early Middle Chinese, Late Middle Chinese and Early Mandarin. Vancouver: UBC Press.Google Scholar
Roberts, I. & Roussou, A.
2003 Syntactic Change: A Minimalist Approach to Grammaticalization. Cambridge: CUP.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Sagart, Laurent
1999 The Roots of Old Chinese[Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 184]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Schuessler, Axel
2007 ABC Etymological Dictionary of Old Chinese. Honolulu HI: University of Hawai’i Press.Google Scholar
Shimura, Ryoji
1984 Chugoku chusei gohoushi kenkyu(Middle Chinese grammar). Tokyo: Santosha.Google Scholar
Sybesma, Rint
1997 Why Chinese verb-Le is a resultative predicate. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 6(3): 215–261.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1999 The Mandarin VP. Dordrecht: Kluwer.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Tai, J. H-Y.
1984 Verbs and times in Chinese: Vendler’s four categories. In Papers from the Parasession on Lexical Semantics, D. Testen, V. Mishra, J. Drogo (eds.), 289–296. Chicago IL: Chicago Linguistic Society.Google Scholar
Travis, L. deMena
2010 Inner Aspect. Dordrecht: Springer.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Unger, U.
1983 Hao ku Nr. 20 (unpublished).Google Scholar
Wang, Li
1958 [2004]. Hanyu shigao. Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju.Google Scholar
Wei Pei-chüan
2015 Gu Hanyu shiti biaoji de yuxu leixing yu yanbian (Word order patterns of temporal and aspectual markers in Classical Chinese and their development). Language and Linguistics 16(2): 213–247.Google Scholar
Whitman, John
2008 The classification of constituent order generalizations and diachronic explanation. In Linguistic Universals and Language Change, Jeff Good (ed.), 233–252. Oxford: OUP.DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Zhou, Xuan
1996 The interaction of the Mandarin aspectual particles guo, le, and zhe . Paper presented at Chicago Linguistic Society 32.Google Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 2 other publications

Meisterernst, Barbara
2019. A New Approach on the Modal KE 可 and the Relation Between the Aspectual and the Modal System in Archaic Chinese. In New Perspectives on Aspect and Modality in Chinese Historical Linguistics [Frontiers in Chinese Linguistics, 5], ► pp. 159 ff. DOI logo
Meisterernst, Barbara
2019. A semantic analysis of modal DE 得 in pre-modern Chinese. Lingua sinica 5:1 ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 05 january 2023. 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.