When lexicalization meets grammaticalization : the development of ‘wang+Path’ adverbials in Northern Chinese

Christine Lamarre (1)

1 CRLAO - Centre de Recherches Linguistiques sur l'Asie Orientale

This paper discusses a productive compounding pattern, which combines preposition 往 wàng (or wǎng) ‘towards’, with a path-expressing element P, either a monosyllabic localizer, e.g. wǎnglǐ 往里 ‘in’, or a path verb, e.g. wǎnghuí 往回 ‘back’ or wǎngqǐ 往起 ‘up’. Wang-P compounds, like directional complements, express the core path meanings of a spatial motion event (‘up’, ‘down’, ‘in’, ‘out’, ‘across’ etc.), but they appear before the verb. Directional complements follow the verb, and have a bounding effect on the clause, like resultative complements (eg. 拿进去ná-jinqu ‘take in’ or ná-qilai 拿起来 ‘take up’). We argue that one important motivation for this lexicalization process is the need for two complete symmetric sets of path-marking elements sharing the same path meanings but with different aspectual implications for the clause. The development of the second type of compounds (WANG+directional verb), which appears later in history, fills up the gaps existing in the repertory of core path meanings provided by localizers: huí ‘back’, qǐ ‘up (source-oriented)’, guò ‘over’ etc.. We also discuss the respective part of lexicalization and grammaticalization in this evolution.

Mots clés: path of motion; directionals; localizers; Northern Mandarin; lexicalization; directionals; localizers; Northern Mandarin; lexicalization; grammaticalization

Domaines: Linguistique

Christine Lamarre. When lexicalization meets grammaticalization : the development of ‘wang+Path’ adverbials in Northern Chinese. G. Cao, H. Chappell, R. Djamouri et Th. Wiebusch Breaking down the Barriers: Interdisciplinary Studies in Chinese Linguistics and Beyond (Vol. 2), 50, Institute of Linguistics, Academia Sinica pp.887-910, 2013, Language and Linguistics Monograph Series, 978-986-037678-4. ⟨hal-01381996⟩