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Article published In:
Language and Linguistics
Vol. 23:2 (2022) ► pp.349–369

From ‘two’ to a comitative-instrumental case marker

A regional innovation in the Gansu-Qinghai linguistic area

| Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
This paper examines the comitative and instrumental case markers in the Chinese dialects and Altaic languages spoken in the Gansu-Qinghai Linguistic Area (GQLA) and finds a noteworthy phenomenon: one of the frequently used comitative-instrumental markers originated from the numeral ‘two’, a rare source for comitatives. The numeral ‘two’ is grammaticalized under the process of {‘two’ (appositive) > coordinator > comitative > instrumental}. This paper argues that the marker ‘two’ in Chinese dialects did not have an Altaic origin and was then borrowed for Chinese, as Dwyer (1992) suggested. The fact that the comitative-instrumental markers in both Altaic (especially Mongolic) languages and Chinese dialects come from the numeral ‘two’ with comitative-instrumental syncretism reflects a regional innovation in GQLA.
Keywords: comitative-instrumental case marker, grammaticalization, origin, regional innovation
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The comitative-instrumental case markers in the Chinese dialects and Altaic languages in GQLA
    • 2.1Chinese dialects
    • 2.2Altaic languages
  • 3.From ‘two’ to a comitative-instrumental marker
  • 4.Where did the comitative-instrumental markers come from?
    • 4.1 Dwyer (1992)
    • 4.2From Chinese to Altaic
    • 4.3Another possibility
  • 5.Regional innovation
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.

Published online: 29 April 2022
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https://doi.org/10.1075/lali.00109.zho
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