Reinforcement by realignment in diachronic construction grammar
The case of classifier xiē in Mandarin Chinese
This paper suggests that xiē ‘some’ in Mandarin Chinese originated as a quantifier but became a
classifier in the yi ‘one’ construction via realignment, or change in
inheritance in diachronic construction grammar. This change has created yi xiē, semantically
equivalent to xiē, therefore it is also a case of reinforcement in the sense of Jespersen’s Cycle. However, this
study argues that yi xiē has not necessarily undergone grammaticalisation. Generalising the analysis, two types
of reinforcement are proposed: reinforcement by innovation and by realignment. The former involves grammaticalisation, but the
latter may not. The study highlights the importance of higher-level generalisations in language change.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Classifiers and the questions raised by xiē
- 2.1Classifiers in Mandarin
- 2.2
Xiē’s synchronic description
- 2.3Previous analyses of (yi) xiē
- 3.Diachronic construction grammar
- 4.
Xiē’s diachrony
- 4.1A brief history of xiē
- 4.2A constructional interpretation of xiē’s categories
- 5.A realignment analysis
- 5.1From [xiē
np]
qnt
to [xiē
np]
bare
- 5.2From [xiē
np]
bare
to [yi xiē
np]
- 5.3
Bàn xiē and liǎng xiē
- 6.Grammaticalisation, reinforcement, and realignment
- 6.1
Yi reinforces diminutivity in xiē
- 6.2What is grammaticalised in yi xiē?
- 6.3Reinforcement and realignment
- 7.Conclusion
- Acknowledgements
- Notes
- Abbreviations
-
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