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New Trends in Grammaticalization and Language Change
Edited by Sylvie Hancil, Tine Breban and José Vicente Lozano
[Studies in Language Companion Series 202] 2018
► pp. 361–380

The development of the Chinese scalar additive coordinators derived from prohibitives

A constructionist perspective

| Kwansei Gakuin University
| Nagoya University

In this paper, we trace from a constructionist perspective the diachronic development of the Chinese scalar additive coordinators meaning roughly ‘let alone’ derived from a prohibitive expression ‘don’t say’. We argue that a construction schema formed by the combination of a prohibitive marker with a SAY verb conveying the scalar additive meaning may have been established in Ancient Chinese. This construction schema analogically sanctioned more forms of such pattern into scalar additive coordinators over time, including biéshuō in Contemporary Chinese. The development of the scalar additive coordinators derived from the prohibitives is more likely to be considered as a case of constructionalization. Crucially, it is the entire construction that has spread over time. The present study demonstrates that prohibitives can also serve clause combining functions.

Keywords: scalar additive coordinator, prohibitives, constructionalization, biéshuō
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The constructional approach
  • 3.The diachronic development of the SAC
    • 3.1The discourse contexts giving rise to the SAC
    • 3.2The rise of the SAC
  • 4.The diffusional change of the SAC construction
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Abbreviations
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 6 December 2018
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https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.202.15zhu
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