Chapter 1Introduction
1
1.1Introduction
1
1.2About Chinese pivotal constructions
2
1.2.1The major categories of Chinese pivotal constructions
2
1.2.2Other categories of Chinese pivotal constructions
5
1.2.3The form properties of Chinese pivotal constructions
6
1.3Motivations and goals
8
1.4Data
10
1.4.1Sources of data
10
1.4.2Screening historical data
11
Chapter 2The constructional approaches to language changes
13
2.1Introduction
13
2.2Characteristics of construction
13
2.2.1Different definitions of “construction”
14
2.2.2The three dimensions of construction
15
2.2.3The constructional hierarchy
16
2.3Diachronic construction grammar and constructionalization
17
2.3.1Diachronic construction grammar
17
2.3.1.1Characteristics of diachronic construction grammar
17
2.3.1.2A construction grammar framework suitable for the study of language change
18
2.3.1.3The nature of grammaticalization in the development of complex and schematic constructions
19
2.3.1.4The propriety of current grammaticalization theories to the development of complex and schematic constructions
20
2.3.2The theory of constructionalization and constructional changes
22
2.3.3The extension of schematic constructions
24
2.4The assumptions and hypotheses made in this book
25
2.4.1The basic assumptions
25
2.4.2Hypotheses and methodology
27
2.5Summary
28
Chapter 3Chinese pivot constructions: form and meaning properties
31
3.1Introduction
31
3.2The form and meaning properties of the manipulative pivotal construction
31
3.2.1The form properties of the manipulative pivotal construction
31
3.2.1.1The aspectual properties of v
1 and v
2
33
3.2.1.2The negation form of the manipulative pivotal construction
36
3.2.2The meaning properties of the manipulative pivotal construction
39
3.2.2.1Manipulation vs. causation
39
3.2.2.2The interaction between the manipulator and manipulee
40
3.2.2.3The temporal-spatial relationship between v
1 and v
2
43
3.2.2.4
v
1 denotes physical action or verbal action
43
3.3The form and meaning properties of the cause-complement pivotal construction
44
3.3.1The form properties
44
3.3.2Syntactic and semantic ambiguity
46
3.3.2.1The compatibility of cause-complement pivotal construction with the transformations of the embedded subordination construction
47
3.3.2.2Native speaker judgments on the meaning of the cause-complement pivotal construction
51
3.4The form and meaning properties of the descriptive pivotal construction
53
3.4.1The basics of the descriptive pivotal construction
53
3.4.1.1The range of v
1 and v
2
54
3.4.1.2Descriptive pivotal construction as a single sentence
54
3.4.1.3The informationally strong v
1
55
3.4.1.4Descriptive pivotal construction and relative clause construction
56
3.4.2Morphosyntactic and semantic constraints on the descriptive pivotal construction
58
3.4.2.1The indefiniteness of the pivot n and the numeral phrase preceding it
58
3.4.2.2The aspectual marking of v
1
60
3.5Summary
63
Chapter 4The taxonomy and constructional hierarchy of Chinese pivotal constructions
65
4.1Introduction
65
4.2Methodology
65
4.3The taxonomy and constructional hierarchy of the manipulative pivotal construction
69
4.3.1The taxonomy of the manipulative pivotal construction
70
4.3.1.1The subtypes of v
enf
nv
2
72
4.3.1.2The subtypes of v
adv
nv
2
73
4.3.1.3The subtypes of v
ass
nv
2
75
4.3.1.4The subtypes of v
fac
nv
2
76
4.3.1.5The subtypes of v
dem
nv
2
77
4.3.1.6The subtypes of v
per
nv
2, v
cau
nv
2, and v
gui
nv
2
78
4.3.1.7The subtypes of v
lea
nv
2 and v
ent
nv
2
80
4.3.2The constructional hierarchy of the manipulative pivotal construction
81
4.4The taxonomy and constructional hierarchy of the cause-complement pivotal construction
83
4.4.1The taxonomy of the cause-complement pivotal construction
85
4.4.1.1The subtypes of v
emo
nv
2
85
4.4.1.2The subtypes of v
jud
nv
2
86
4.4.1.3The subtypes of v
bul
nv
2
87
4.4.1.4The subtypes of v
dec
nv
2
87
4.4.2The constructional hierarchy of the cause-complement pivotal construction
88
4.5The taxonomy and constructional hierarchy of the descriptive pivotal construction
89
4.5.1The taxonomy of the descriptive pivotal construction
89
4.5.1.1The subtypes of v
pre
nv
2
92
4.5.1.2The subtypes of v
acq
nv
2
94
4.5.1.3The subtypes of v
eme
nv
2
95
4.5.1.4The subtypes of v
pro
nv
2
96
4.5.1.5The subtypes of v
rel
nv
2
98
4.5.1.6The subtypes of v
exp
nv
2
98
4.5.1.7The subtypes of v
man
nv
2
100
4.5.1.8The subtypes of v
per
nv
2
101
4.5.1.9The subtypes of v
cog
nv
2
101
4.5.2The constructional hierarchy of the descriptive pivotal construction
101
4.6Summary
104
Chapter 5The diachronic developments of Chinese pivotal constructions
107
5.1Introduction
107
5.1.1Methodology
107
5.1.2The historical periods for which data are examined
108
5.2The history of the manipulative pivotal construction
109
5.2.1The 17th–11th centuries bc
109
5.2.2The 10th–7th centuries bc
110
5.2.3The 6th–3rd centuries bc
111
5.2.4The 2nd century bc–2nd century ad
113
5.2.5The 3rd–6th centuries ad
115
5.2.6The 7th–12th centuries ad
118
5.2.7The 13th–17th centuries ad
119
5.2.8A summary of the historical periods in which the primary types of the manipulative pivotal construction appeared
122
5.3The history of the cause-complement pivotal construction
122
5.3.1The emergence of the cause-complement pivotal construction
124
5.3.1.1The parallelism between v
1[nv
2] and v
1[n
zhi
v
2]
124
5.3.1.2The appearance of the hypotactic v
emo
nv
2
126
5.3.1.3The emergence of a hypotactic v
jud
nv
2
128
5.3.2The further development of the cause-complement pivotal construction
131
5.3.2.1The 7th–14th centuries ad
131
5.3.2.2The 15th–18th centuries ad
134
5.3.2.3After the 19th century ad
138
5.3.3A summary of the historical periods in which the primary types of the cause-complement pivotal construction appeared
141
5.4The history of the descriptive pivotal construction
141
5.4.1Before the 5th century bc
141
5.4.2The 5th century bc–1st century ad
142
5.4.3The 7th–14th centuries ad
143
5.4.4The 15th–19th centuries ad
146
5.4.5After the 19th century ad
149
5.4.6A summary of the historical periods in which the primary types of the cause-complement pivotal construction appeared
151
5.5The expansion of the pivotal constructions with respect to the main semantic-pragmatic properties
151
Chapter 6The accumulative expansion of the constructional hierarchy
155
6.1Introduction
155
6.2Changes in the m-level pivotal constructions
155
6.2.1The meso I and meso II level constructions
156
6.2.1.1The manipulative pivotal construction
156
6.2.1.2The cause-complement pivotal construction
158
6.2.1.3The descriptive pivotal construction
161
6.2.1.4The increase in the semantic diversity
163
6.2.2The micro level
163
6.3Two-dimensional accumulative
167
6.3.1The inclusive growth in semantics
168
6.3.2The stratificational growth with respect to the schematicitylevel
172
6.3.2.1The stratificational growth in the meso I level v
enf
nv
2 and the macro level manipulative pivotal construction
172
6.3.2.2The stratificational growth in the meso I level v
emo
nv
2 and the macro level cause-complement pivotal construction
175
6.3.2.3The stratificational growth in the meso I VPRENV2 and the macro level descriptive pivotal construction
176
6.3.2.4The recurrent attenuation of semantic particulars in the process of stratificational growth
179
6.3.3The cyclical interaction between the inclusive growth and stratificational growth
179
6.4Summary
180
Chapter 7The relaxation of the original restrictive conditions
181
7.1Introduction
181
7.2Methodology
182
7.3The relaxation of the original restrictive conditions at macro and meso I levels
184
7.3.1The relaxation of restrictive conditions in the history of the manipulative pivotal construction
184
7.3.1.1The macro level
184
7.3.1.2The meso I level
191
7.3.2The relaxation of the original restrictive conditions in the history of the cause-complement pivotal construction
196
7.3.2.1The macro level
196
7.3.2.2The meso I level
199
7.3.3The relaxation of the restrictive conditions in the history of the descriptive pivotal construction
202
7.3.3.1The macro level
202
7.3.3.2The meso I level
206
7.3.4The interaction between the relaxation of restrictive conditions and the sanction of deviant instances
209
7.4The pivotal constructions as form-meaning pairs in terms of the inherited conditions
210
7.5The form-meaning coevolution in terms of changes in inherited conditions
212
7.6Summary
215