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Article published In:
Language and Linguistics
Vol. 24:4 (2023) ► pp.733–763

The grammaticalization of impossibility

The emergence of the Mandarin modal auxiliary wufa

| Ningbo College of Health Sciences | KU Leuven
| KU Leuven
This study, based on the analysis of historical corpus data, investigates the diachronic development of the Mandarin modal auxiliary wufa and establishes implications both for the grammaticalization of modals and for grammaticalization theory in general. Specifically, our study shows the following results: (1) The grammaticalization of wufa is characterized by coalescence, paradigmaticization, obligatorification, fixation, desemanticization, decategorialization and divergence. (2) Underlying mechanisms at work are structural reanalysis, later followed by syntactic expansion and host-class expansion. (3) The grammaticalization of wufa on the one hand confirms the diachronic path proposed in previous studies, viz., from root possibility to epistemic possibility; within the development of root possibility, however, it demonstrates a distinct path—from participant-external possibility to participant-internal possibility; it is suggested that an important driving force behind this peculiar development path is the Chinese cultural preference for collectivism. (4) The lexical source of modal wufa is a verb-complement sequence (rather than a single full verb).
Keywords: modal auxiliaries, possibility, grammaticalization, mechanisms of change, Mandarin Chinese
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Theoretical context
    • 2.1Modality
    • 2.2Grammaticalization
  • 3. Wufa in Modern Chinese
  • 4.Data and methodology
  • 5.The diachronic development of the modal auxiliary wufa
    • 5.1 Wu fa as a lexical string
    • 5.2The emergence of wufa/wu fa ke V
    • 5.3The emergence of wufa/wu fa VP
    • 5.4The decline of wufa/wu fa ke V and the rise of wufa/wu fa VP
    • 5.5The semantic development of wufa
    • 5.6Summarizing the development of wufa
  • 6. Wufa as a grammaticalized item
  • 7.Discussion
  • 8.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 [email protected].

Published online: 14 September 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/lali.00144.liu
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