Cover not available
Part of
Modes of Modality: Modality, typology, and universal grammar
Edited by Elisabeth Leiss and Werner Abraham
[Studies in Language Companion Series 149] 2014
► pp. 219–260

Epistemic, evidential and attitudinal markers in clause-medial position in Cantonese

ORCID logo | Hong Kong Polytechnic University
ORCID logo | The Open University of Hong Kong

This paper examines two types of clause-medial stance markers in Cantonese.* We trace the evolution of these stance markers from their lexical origins as complement-taking psych verbs and directional verbs. Similar to English I think parentheticals, the evolution of the Cantonese psych verbs (e.g. gok3dak1 ‘feel/think’; paa3 ‘fear’; m4zi1 ‘don’t know’) involves ‘insubordination’ of the embedded complement clause. However, in Cantonese, subject ellipsis and topic constructions play an important role in the reanalysis of psych verbs into epistemic and negative attitudinal markers in clause-medial position.1 Directional verbs in Cantonese (e.g. faan1 ‘return’ and maai4 ‘approach’), on the other hand, develop into attitudinal particles via verbal complementation and a disjunctive strategy. Central to the development of both types of stance markers is the first person subject ngo5, whether explicitly or implicitly expressed, which makes the process of subjectification possible.

Published online: 24 January 2014
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.149.08yap
References
Aikhenvald, Alexandra Y
2004 Evidentiality. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Chang, Song Hing
1996 Dòngcí de Tǐ (Aspects of Verbs). Hong Kong: The Chinese University of Hong Kong Institute of Chinese Studies, T.T. Ng Chinese Language Research Centre.Google Scholar
Cheng, Ting Au
1997 Xiānggǎng Yuèyǔ Cídiǎn (Hong Kong Cantonese Dictionary). Nanking: Jiangsu Education Publishing House.Google Scholar
Cheung, Hung-nin Samuel
1972 A Grammar of Cantonese as Spoken in Hong Kong. Hong Kong: Chinese University Press.Google Scholar
Chin, Chi-on
2003 A new resource in Cantonese studies: A transcribed spoken corpus of mid-20th century Cantonese. Newsletter of Chinese Language 92(1): 1–10.Google Scholar
Chor, Winnie Oi-Wan
2010a Grammaticalization of Directional Particles in Cantonese. PhD dissertation, University of Sydney.Google Scholar
Chor, Winnie
2010b Inclusion of the outsider — grammaticalization of the verbal particle maai in Cantonese. Taiwan Journal of Linguistics 8(2): 33–62.Google Scholar
2013 From ‘direction’ to ‘positive evaluation’: On the grammaticalization, subjectification and intersubjectification of faan1 ‘return’ in Cantonese. Language and Linguistics 14(1): 91–134.Google Scholar
DeLancey, Scott
2011 Finite structures from clausal nominalization in Tibeto-Burman. In Nominalization in Asian languages: Diachronic and typological perspectives [Typological Studies in Language 96], Foong H. Yap, Karen Grunow-Hårsta & Janick Wrona (eds), 343–360. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Endo, Tomoko
2004 Two types of subjectification in Mandarin Chinese: The epistemic senses of YAO and PA . Language, Information and Sciences 2: 29–42.Google Scholar
2006 Experiencer defocusing and the grammaticalization of emotion predicates: The case of love and fear in Mandarin Chinese. In Proceedings of the Sixth Annual Meeting of the Japanese Cognitive Linguistics Association, 75–84.Google Scholar
2013 Epistemic stance in Mandarin conversation: The positions and functions of wo juede (I feel/think). In   Chinese Discourse and Interaction: Theory and Practice, Yuling Pan & Dániel Z. Kádár (eds), 12–34. London: Equinox.Google Scholar
Evans, Nick
2007 Insubordination and its uses. In Finiteness: Theoretical and Empirical Foundations, Irina Nikolaeva (ed.), 366–431. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Gāo, Huánián
1980 Guǎngzhōu Fāngyán Yánjiū (A Study of the Guǎngzhōu Dialect). Hong Kong: Commercial Press.Google Scholar
Givón, T
1993 English Grammar: A Function-based Introduction. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
2001 Syntax: An Introduction, Vol. 1, rev. edn. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Grunow-Hårsta, Karen
2011 Innovation in nominalization in Magar: A Tibeto-Burman language of Nepal. In Foong Ha Yap, Karen Grunow-Hårsta & Janick Wrona (eds), Nominalization in Asian Languages: Diachronic and Typological Perspectives [Typological Studies in Language 96], 215–254. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Higashiizumi, Yuko
2006 From a Subordinate Clause to an Independent Clause: A History of English because-clause and Japanese kara-clause. Tokyo: Hituzi Syobo.Google Scholar
Kärkkäinen, Elise
2003 Epistemic Stance in English Conversation: A Description of its Interactional Functions, with a Focus on I think [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 115] Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kwok, Helen
1971 A Linguistic Study of the Cantonese Verb. Hong Kong: Centre of Asian Studies, University of Hong Kong.Google Scholar
Li, Charles N. & Thompson, Sandra A
1976 Subject and topic: A new typology of language. In Subject and Topic, Charles N. Li, (ed.), 457–489. New York NY: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Lim, Ni
Eng 2011 From subjectivity to intersubjectivity: Epistemic marker wo juede in Chinese. In Current Issues in Chinese Linguistics, Yun Xiao; Liang Tao & Hooi Ling Soh (eds), 265–300. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars.Google Scholar
Luó, Wěiháo
1990 Guǎngdōnghuà de “mái” zì (The Cantonese word maai4). In A collection of thesis from the 2nd International Cantonese Dialect Discussion, Bohui Zhan et al. (eds), 173–175. Canton: Jinan University Press.Google Scholar
Matisoff, James
1972 Lahu nominalization, relativization and genitivization. In Syntax and Semantics 1, John P. Kimball (ed.), 237–58. New York NY: Seminar Press.Google Scholar
Noonan, Michael
1997 Versatile nominalizations. In Essays on Language Function and Language Type: Dedicated to T. Givón, Joan Bybee, John Haiman & Sandra A. Thompson (eds) 373–394. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2011 Aspects of the historical development of nominalizers in the Tamangic languages. In Foong Ha Yap, Karen Grunow-Hårsta & Janick Wrona (eds), Nominalization in Asian Languages: Diachronic and Typological Perspectives [Typological Studies in Language 96], 195–214. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ohori, Toshio
1995 Remarks on suspended clauses: A contribution to Japanese phraseology. In Essays in Semantics and Pragmatics: In Honor of Charles J. Fillmore [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 32], Masayoshi Shibatani & Sandra A. Thompson (eds), 201–218. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Research Centre on Linguistics and Language Information Sciences, Hong Kong Institute of Education
, A Linguistics Corpus of Mid-20th Century Hong Kong Cantonese, 17 March 2012, <[URL] (20 December 2012).Google Scholar
Rhee, Seongha
2012 Context-induced reinterpretation and (inter)subjectification: The case of grammaticalization of sentence-final particles. Language Sciences 34(3): 284–300. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Shibatani, Masayoshi
1991 Grammaticalization of topic into subject. In Approaches to Grammaticalization, Vol. 2: Focus on Types of Grammatical Markers [Typological Studies in Language 19(2)], Elizabeth Closs Traugott & Bernd Heine (eds),93–133. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Shinzato, Rumiko
2011 Nominalization in Okinawan: From a diachronic and comparative perspective. In Nominalization in Asian Languages: Diachronic and Typological Perspectives [Typological Studies in Language 96], Foong Ha Yap, Karen Grunow-Hårsta & Janick Wrona (eds), 445–472. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Svorou, Soteria
1994 The Grammar of Space [Typological Studies in Language 25]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Thompson, Sandra A. & Mulac, Anthony
1991 A quantitative perspective on the grammaticization of epistemic parentheticals in English. In Approaches to Grammaticalization, Vol. 2: Focus on Types of Grammatical Markers [Typological Studies in Language 19(2)], Elizabeth Closs Traugott & Bernd Heine (eds), 313–339. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Traugott, Elizabeth Closs
1989 On the rise of epistemic meanings in English: An example of subjectification in semantic change. Language 65(1): 33–65. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
1995 Subjectification in grammaticalization. In Subjectivity and Subjectivisation: Linguistic Perspectives, Dieter Stein & Susan Wright (eds), 31–54. Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Traugott, Elizabeth
Closs 1996 Subjectification and the development of epistemic meaning: The case of promise and threaten . In Modality in Germanic Languages: Historical & Comparative Perspectives, Toril Swan & Olaf J. Westvik (eds), 185–210. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Traugott, Elizabeth Closs
1999 The rhetoric of counter-expectation in semantic change: A study in subjectification. In Historical Semantics and Cognition, Andreas Blank & Peter Koch (eds), 177–96. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2003 From subjectification to intersubjectification. In Motives for Language Change, Raymond Hickey (ed.), 124–139. Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
2010 Revisiting subjectification and intersubjectification. In Subjectification, Intersubjectification and Grammaticalization, Kristin Davidse, Lieven Vandelanotte & Hubert Cuyckens (eds), 29–70. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Underhill, Robert
1988 The discourse conditions for that-deletion. Ms, San Diego State University.Google Scholar
Wang, Yu-Fang, Katz, Aya & Chen, Zhi-hua
2003 Thinking as saying—Shuo (‘say’) in Taiwan Mandarin conversation and BBS talk. Language Sciences 25: 457–488. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Watters, David
2008 Nominalization in the Kiranti and Central Himalayish languages of Nepal. Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area 31(2): 1–43.Google Scholar
Wischer, Ilse
2000 Grammaticalization versus lexicalization - ‘ methinks’ there is some confusion. In Pathways of Change: Grammaticalization in English [Studies in Language Companion Series 53], Olga Fischer, Anette Rosenbach & Dieter Stein (eds), 355–370. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wong, Ping-Wai
2006 The specification of POS tagging of the Hong Kong University Cantonese Corpus. Technology and Human Interaction 2(1): 21–38. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wong, Tak-sum, Yang, Ying & Yap, Foong Ha
2011 A corpus analysis of Cantonese m4zi1 (‘don’t know’) and related negative attitudinal expressions: Implications for the relationship between negation, indefiniteness and stance. Presented in the 16th International Conference on Yue Dialects , Hong Kong Polytechnic University, December 15–16.Google Scholar
Wu, Ruey-Jiuan Regina
2004 Stance in Talk: A Conversation Analysis of Mandarin Final Particles [Pragmatics & Beyond New Series 117]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Xu, Hui Ling & Matthews, Stephen
2011 On the polyfunctionality and grammaticalization of the morpheme kai in the Chaozhou dialect. In Nominalization in Asian Languages: Diachronic and Typological Perspectives [Typological Studies in Language 96], Foong Ha Yap, Karen Grunow-Hårsta & Janick Wrona (eds),109–124. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Yang, Ying, Wong, Tak-Sum & Yap, Foong Ha
2012 A diachronic study of epistemic Kongpa in Mandarin discourse. Presented in the 6th Conference on Language, Discourse, and Cognition (CLDC 2012), National Taiwan University, Taipei, May 4–6.Google Scholar
Yang, Ying & Yap, Foong Ha
2012 “I am sure but I hedge”: fear expression kongpa as a rhetorical interactive strategy in Mandarin conversation. Ms, Hong Kong Polytechnic University.Google Scholar
Yap, Foong Ha, Choi, Pik-ling & Cheung, Kam Siu
2010 De-lexicalizing di3: How a Chinese locative noun has evolved into an attitudinal nominalizer. In Formal Evidence in Grammaticalization Research [Typological Studies in Language 94], An Van linden, J. Christoph Verstraete & Kristin Davidse (eds), 63–91. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Yap, Foong Ha, Chor, Winnie & Wang, Jiao
2012 On the development of epistemic ‘fear’ markers: An analysis of Mandar In kongpa and Cantonese taipaa . In Covert Patterns of Modality, Werner Abraham & Elisabeth Leiss (eds), 312–342. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars.Google Scholar
Yap, Foong Ha, Grunow-Hårsta, Karen & Wrona, Janick
2011 Nominalization strategies in Asian languages. In Nominalization in Asian Languages: Diachronic and Typological Perspectives [Typological Studies in Language 96], Foong Ha Yap, Karen Grunow-Hårsta & Janick Wrona (eds), 1–57. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Yap, Foong Ha & Matthews, Stephen
2008 The development of nominalizers in East Asian and Tibeto-Burman languages. In Rethinking Grammaticalization: New Perspectives [Typological Studies in Language 76], Maria José López-Couso & Elena Seoane (eds) in collaboration with Teresa Fanego, 309–341. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Yap, Foong Ha, Matthews, Stephen & Horie, Kaoru
2004 From pronominalizer to pragmatic marker: Implications for unidirectionality from a crosslinguistic perspective. In Up and Down the Cline: The Nature of Grammaticalization [Typological Studies in Language 59], Olga Fischer, Muriel Norde & Harry Perridon (eds), 137–168. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Yap, Foong Ha, Wang, Jiao & Tsz-Kwan Lam, Charles
2010 Clausal integration and the emergence of mitigative and adhortative sentence-final particles in Chinese. Taiwan Journal of Linguistics 8(2): 63–86. Special Issue on Stance Phenomena in Chinese: Diachronic, Discourse and Processing Perspectives.Google Scholar
Yap, Foong Ha, Wang, Jiao & Sakurai, Kazuhiro
2010 From “I don’t know” to “who knows”: An analysis of attitudinal interrogatives in some Asian languages. Presented at the Workshop on Pragmatic Markers in Asian Languages, National Taiwan University, Taipei, April 30.Google Scholar
Yap, Foong Ha, Yang, Ying & Wong, Tak-sum
In press. On the development of sentence final particles (and utterance tags) in Chinese. In The Role of the Left and Right Periphery in Semantic Change [Studies in Pragmatics Series], Kate Beeching & Ulrich Detges (eds) Bingley Emerald
Yeung, Ka-wai
2006 On the status of the complementizer waa6 in Cantonese. Taiwan Journal of Linguistics 4(1): 1–48.Google Scholar
Yuán, Jiāhuá
et al 1989[1960] Hànyǔ Fāngyán Gàiyào (A Précis of the Chinese Dialects). Peking: Wenzi Gaige Chubanshe.Google Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 5 other publications

Chen, Weirong & Foong Ha Yap
2018. Pathways to adversity and speaker affectedness: On the emergence of unaccusative ‘give’ constructions in Chinese . Linguistics 56:1 ► pp. 19 ff. DOI logo
Hwang, Heeju
2018. Semantic Properties of Pronouns Modulate Pronoun Use: Evidence from Cantonese. Discourse Processes 55:1 ► pp. 92 ff. DOI logo
Kashyap, Abhishek Kumar & Foong Ha Yap
2017. Epistemicity, social identity and politeness marking: A pragmatic analysis of Bajjika verbal inflections. Linguistics 55:3 ► pp. 413 ff. DOI logo
Liu, Xuekun
2021. Homonationalist and homocolonialist discourses in Hong Kong’s anti-extradition protests: Online evaluations and representations of LGBT rights. Discourse, Context & Media 40 ► pp. 100465 ff. DOI logo
[no author supplied]
2018. Directional Particles in Cantonese [Studies in Chinese Language and Discourse, 9], DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 20 april 2024. 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.