Cover not available
Article published In:
Functions of Language
Vol. 26:2 (2019) ► pp.139–176

The development of the Chinese copula shì construction

A diachronic constructional perspective

| City University of Hong Kong
| Stanford University
This paper investigates the development of the copula shì construction in Chinese from the perspective of diachronic construction grammar (Traugott & Trousdale 2013). In prior work the development has been conceptualized in a grammaticalization framework, with focus on the individual expression shì, rather than on its development in the context of both the immediate syntactic frame and also of other constructions such as the demonstrative shì construction and the copula wéi construction. We show that the copula shì construction went through various types of expansion and reduction. The change was not unidirectional in the way predicted by a grammaticalization model such as is proposed in e.g. Lehmann (1995, 2004) and Haspelmath (2004).
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The perspectives on grammar and change adopted
    • 2.1Construction grammar
    • 2.2Constructionalization
    • 2.3Comparison of constructionalization with grammaticalization
  • 3.Data and methodology
  • 4.The development of the copula shì
    • 4.1The copula shì in Modern Chinese
    • 4.2The situation in Archaic Chinese
    • 4.3The emergence of the copula shì construction
    • 4.4Probable motivations and mechanisms for constructionalization of shì as a copula
  • 5.Expansion of the copula shì construction
    • 5.1The gain of the copula shì construction and reduction of the copula wéi construction
    • 5.2The increase of adverbs preceding shì
    • 5.3Generalization of the copula shì construction without final particle
    • 5.4Changes in the type of np in [np1 shì np2]
    • 5.5The intertwining of expansion and reduction
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
Published online: 2 August 2019
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/fol.16001.zha
References (92)
References
Andersen, Henning. 2001. Actualization and the (uni)directionality of change. In Henning Andersen (ed.), Actualization: Linguistic change in progress, 225–248. Amsterdam: Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Anttila, Raimo. 2003. Analogy: The warp and woof of cognition. In Brian D. Joseph & Richard D. Janda (eds.), The handbook of historical linguistics, 425–440. Oxford: Blackwell. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Baayen, R. Harald. 2001. Word frequency distributions. Dordrecht: Kluwer. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Barðdal, Jóhanna. 2008. Productivity: Evidence from case and argument structure in Icelandic. Amsterdam: Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Barðdal, Jóhanna, Elena Smirnova, Lotte Sommerer & Spike Gildea (eds.). 2015. Diachronic Construction Grammar. Amsterdam: Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bergs, Alexander & Gabriele Diewald (eds.). 2008. Constructions and language change. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bisang, Walter. 2010. Grammaticalization in Chinese: A construction-based account. In Traugott & Trousdale (eds.), Gradience, gradualness and grammaticalization, 245–277. Amsterdam: Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Blom, Alied & Saskia Daalder. 1977. Syntaktische theorie en taalbeschrijving. Muiderberg: Coutinho.Google Scholar
Booij, Geert. 2010. Construction morphology. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Börjars, Kersti, Nigel Vincent & George Walden. 2015. On constructing a theory of grammatical change. Transactions of the philological society 113(3). 363–382. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bybee, Joan. 2003. Mechanisms of change in grammaticization: The role of frequency. In Brian D. Joseph & Richard D. Janda (eds.), The handbook of historical linguistics, 602–623. Oxford: Blackwell. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2006. Frequency of use and the organization of language. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Bybee, Joan & James L. McClellan. 2005. Alternatives to the combinatorial paradigm of linguistic theory based on domain general principles of human cognition. Linguistic Review 221. 3811–410. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bybee, Joan, Revere Perkins & William Pagliuca. 1994. The evolution of grammar: Tense, aspect, and modality in the languages of the world. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Chang, Jung-hsing. 2006. The Chinese copula shì and its origin: A cognitive-based approach. Taiwan Journal of Linguistics 4(1). 131–156.Google Scholar
Chao, Yuen-ren. 1968. A grammar of spoken Chinese. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Chappell, Hilary. 2001. Sinitic grammar: Synchronic and diachronic perspectives. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Chen, Mianhua. 2009. Some issues about construction grammar. Foreign Language Education and Studies 51. 337–400.Google Scholar
Croft, William. 2001. Radical Construction Grammar: Syntactic theory in typological perspective. Oxford: OUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
De Smet, Hendrik. 2009. Analysing reanalysis. Lingua 1191. 1728–1755. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2012. The course of actualization. Language 881. 601–633. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Declerck, Renaat. 1988. Studies on copular sentences, clefts and pseudo-clefts. Leuven: Leuven University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Diewald, Gabriele. 2006. Context types in grammaticalization as constructions. Constructions SV, 1–9.Google Scholar
Diessel, Holger. 1999. Demonstratives: Form, function and grammaticalization. Philadelphia: Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Eckardt, Regine. 2006. Meaning change in grammaticalization: An enquiry into semantic reanalysis. Oxford: OUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Feng, Shengli. 1993. The copula in classical Chinese declarative judgment sentences. Journal of Chinese Linguistics 211. 277–311.Google Scholar
Fillmore, Charles J. & Paul Kay. 1997. Berkeley Construction Grammar. Available online at [URL]
Fillmore, Charles J., Paul Kay & Mary Catherine O’Connor. 1988. Regularity and idiomaticity in grammatical constructions. Language 641. 501–538. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Fischer, Olga. 2007. Morphosyntactic change: Functional and formal perspectives. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Givón, Talmy. 1979. On understanding grammar. New York, NY: Academic Press.Google Scholar
. 1991. The evolution of dependent clause morpho-syntax in Biblical Hebrew. In Elizabeth Closs Traugott & Bernd Heine (eds.), Approaches to grammaticalization Vol. II1., 257–310. Amsterdam: Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Goldberg, Adele E. 1995. Constructions: A Construction Grammar approach to argument structure. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
2006. Constructions at work: The nature of generalization in language. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Haspelmath, Martin. 1998. Does grammaticalization need reanalysis? Studies in Language 221. 315–351. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2004. On directionality in language change with particular reference to grammaticalization. In Olga Fischer, Muriel Norde & Harry Perridon (eds.), Up and down the cline: The nature of grammaticalization, 17–44. Amsterdam: Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Heine, Bernd. 1997. Cognitive foundations of grammar. New York, NY: OUP.Google Scholar
Heine, Bernd, Ulrike Claudi & Friederike Hünnemeyer. 1991. Grammaticalization: A conceptual framework. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Heine, Bernd & Tania Kuteva. 2002. World lexicon of grammaticalization. Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hengeveld, Rob. 1992. Dynamic biogeography. New York, NY: CUP.Google Scholar
Higgins, Roger Francis. 1979. The pseudo-cleft construction in English. New York, NY: Garland.Google Scholar
Hilpert, Martin. 2013. Constructional change in English: Developments in allomorphy, word-formation and syntax. Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hilpert, Martin & Stefan Th. Gries. 2016. Quantitative approaches to diachronic corpus linguistics. In Merja Kytö & Päivi Pahta (eds.), The Cambridge handbook of English historical linguistics, 36–53. Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Himmelmann, Nikolaus P. 2004. Lexicalization and grammaticization: Opposite or orthogonal? In Walter Bisang, Nikolaus P. Himmelmann & Björn Wiemer (eds.), What makes grammaticalization: A look from its fringes and its components, 21–42. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Hoffmann, Thomas & Graeme Trousdale. 2013a. Introduction. In Thomas Hoffmann & Graeme Trousdale (eds.), 1–12.Google Scholar
(eds.). 2013b. The Oxford handbook of Construction Grammar. New York, NY: OUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hopper, Paul J. & Elizabeth Closs Traugott. 2003. Grammaticalization (revised edn.). Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Hong, Cheng. 1957. Lun Nanbeichao yiqian de xici ‘On the copula before the Nanbei Dynasty’. Yuyan Yanjiu 21. 1–22.Google Scholar
Huang, C.-T. James. 1982. Logical relations in Chinese and the theory of grammar. Cambridge, MA: MIT Phd Thesis.Google Scholar
Huddleston, Rodney. 2002. The clause complements. In Rodney Huddleston & Geoffrey K. Pullum, The Cambridge grammar of the English language, ch4. Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kiparsky, Paul. 2012. Grammaticalization as optimization. In Dianna Jonas, John Whitman & Andrew Garrett (eds.), Grammatical change: Origins, nature, outcomes, 15–51. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Kuryłowicz, Jerzy. 1975 [1965]. The evolution of grammatical categories. In Jerzy Kuryłowicz, Esquisses linguistiques, Vol. II1. 38–54. Munich: Fink. (Originally published in Diogenes 511. 55–71, 1965.)Google Scholar
Langacker, Ronald W. 1977. Syntactic reanalysis. In Charles N. Li (ed.), Mechanisms of syntactic change, 57–139. Austin: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
1991. Foundations of cognitive grammar, vol. 21. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Lehmann, Christian. 1985. Grammaticalization: Synchronic variation and diachronic change. Lingua e Stile XX1. 303–318.Google Scholar
. 1995. Thoughts on Grammaticalization. Munich: LINCOM EUROPA (2nd, rev. edn. of Thoughts on grammaticalization: a programmatic sketch, 1982).Google Scholar
. 2004. Theory and method in grammaticalization. Zeitschrift für germanistische linguistik 321. 152–187. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Li, Charles N. & Sandra A. Thompson. 1976. Subject and Topic: A new typology. In Charles N. Li (ed.), Subject and topic, 458–489. New York, NY: Academic Press.Google Scholar
. 1977. A mechanism for the development of copula morphemes. In Charles N. Li (ed.), Mechanisms of syntactic change, 419–444. Austin: University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
. 1981. Mandarin Chinese: A functional reference grammar. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Lu, Jianming. 2004. The construction grammar and study of Chinese. Chinese Language 51. 412–479.Google Scholar
Ma, Jianzhong. 1898. Mashi wentong ‘Ma’s grammar’. Beijing: Commercial Press.Google Scholar
Meillet, Antoine. 1958 [1912]. L’évolution des formes grammaticales. In Antoine Meillet, Linguistique historique et linguistique générale, 130–148. Paris: Champion. (Originally published in Scientia (Rivista di scienza) XXII1, 1912)Google Scholar
Narahara, Tomiko. 2002. The Japanese copula: forms and functions. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Noël, Dirk. 2007. Diachronic construction grammar and grammaticalization theory. Functions of Language 141. 177–202. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Patten, Amanda L. 2012. The English IT-cleft: A constructional account and a diachronic investigation. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Peng, Rui. 2013. A diachronic construction grammar account of the Chinese cause-complement pivotal construction. Language Sciences 401. 53–79. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Petré, Peter. 2014. Constructions and environments: Copular, passive and related constructions. Oxford: OUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Peyraube, Alain. 1996. Recent Issues in Chinese Historical Syntax. In C.-T. J. Huang & Y.-H. A. Li (eds.), New horizons in Chinese linguistics, 161–213. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Peyraube, Alain & Thekla Wiebusch. 1994. Problems relating to the history of different copulas in ancient Chinese. In Matthew Y. Chen & Ovid J. L. Tseng (eds.), In Honor of William S-Y. Wang: interdisciplinary studies on language and language change, 383–404. Taipei: Pyramid Press.Google Scholar
Pines, Yuri. 2002. Lexical Changes in Zhanguo Texts. Journal of the American Oriental Society 122(4). 691–705. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Pustet, Regina. 2003. Copulas: Universals in the Categorization of the Lexicon. Oxford studies in typology and linguistic theory. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Pulleyblank, Edwin G. 1995. Outline of classical Chinese grammar. Vancouver: UBC Press.Google Scholar
Roberts, Ian. 1993. A formal account of grammaticalization in the history of Romance futures. Folia Linguistica Historica XIII1. 219–258.Google Scholar
Sag, Ivan A. 2012. Sign-based construction grammar: An informal synopsis. In Hans C. Boas & Ivan A. Sag (eds.), Sign-based construction grammar, 69–202. Stanford, CA: CSLI Publications.Google Scholar
Shi, Yuzhi & Na Li. 2001. Hanyu yufahua de lichen – xingtai jufa fazhan de dongyin he jizhi ‘The path of Chinese grammaticalization – the motivation and mechanism of mophosyntactic change’. Beijing: Beijing University Press.Google Scholar
Smirnova, Elena. 2015. Constructionalization and constructional change: The role of context in the development of constructions. In Jóhanna Barðdal, Elena Smirnova, Lotte Sommerer & Spike Gildea (eds.), Diachronic construction grammar, 81–106. Amsterdam: Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Stassen, Leon. 1997. Intransitive predication. Oxford: OUP.Google Scholar
Takahito, Yamada. 2004. Mengzi de Chengshu Niandai ‘The date of Mengzi’. Limingguan Dongyang Shixue No.27.Google Scholar
Tang, Yuming. 1991. Zhuming zhongnian yuyanxuejia zixuanji ‘Self-selected articles from famous middle aged linguists’. Hefei: Anhui Education Press.Google Scholar
Traugott, Elizabeth Closs. 2011. Grammaticalization and mechanisms of change. In Bernd Heine & Heike Narrog (eds.), The Oxford handbook of grammaticalization, 19–30. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Traugott, Elizabeth Closs & Richard B. Dasher. 2002. Regularity in semantic change. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar
Traugott, Elizabeth Closs & Trousdale, Graeme. 2013. Constructionalization and constructional changes. Oxford: OUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Trousdale, Graeme. 2010. Issues in constructional approaches to grammaticalization in English. In Katerina Stathi, Elke Gehweiler & Ekkehard König (eds.), Grammaticalization: Current views and issues, 51–72. Amsterdam: Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Wang, Hongjun. 1987. Guanyu Mingcihua biaoji “zhi” de Xiaoshi ‘The disappearance of the nominalizer ‘zhe’’. Yuyanxue luncong 41. 158–196.Google Scholar
Wang, Li. 1937. Zhongguo Wenfa zhong de Xici ‘The linking verb in Chinese gammar’. In Li Wang, 1958. Hanyushi lunwenji, 212–276. Beijing: Beijing Press.Google Scholar
. 1958. Hanyushi lunwenji ‘The collection of articles on the history of Chinese’. Beijing: Beijing Press.Google Scholar
Wei, Shimin. 2002. Shishuoxinyu ji Zhu Chengshu Niandai Kao ‘The dates of Shishuoxinyu and its commentary’. Changzhou Shizhuan Xuebao 31. 19–20.Google Scholar
Xu, Liejiong & Danqing Liu. 1998. The structure and functions of Topics. Shanghai: Education Press.Google Scholar
Yang, Bojun. 1981. Chunqiu Zuozhuan zhu ‘The commentary of Chunqiu Zuozhuan’. Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju.Google Scholar
Yen, Sian L. 1986. The origin of the copula shì in Chinese. Journal of Chinese Linguistics 14(2). 227–241.Google Scholar
Zhan, Fangqiong & Chaofen Sun. 2013. A copula analysis of shì in the Chinese cleft construction. Language and Linguistics 14(4). 755–789.Google Scholar
Zhan, Fangqiong & Elizabeth Closs Traugott. 2015. The constructionalization of the Chinese cleft construction. Studies in Language 39(2). 459–491. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by (6)

Cited by six other publications

Zhan, Fangqiong & Haihua Pan
2023. The development of the Chinese VdeO cleft construction. Studies in Language 47:2 ► pp. 318 ff. DOI logo
Zhou, Chenlei
2022. On the disjunctive constructions and related constructions in Zhoutun. Lingua 266 ► pp. 103183 ff. DOI logo
Zhan, Fangqiong, Yue Zhang & Haiping Long
2021. Origin of Modern Chinese pragmatic markers bushi: Negative copula or negative adjective?. Lingua 250 ► pp. 102922 ff. DOI logo
Deng, Yi, Foong Ha Yap & Winnie Chor
2020. Negative attitudinal uses of quantifying classifier di in Wugang Xiang. Journal of Pragmatics 160 ► pp. 14 ff. DOI logo
Zhan, Fangqiong
2020. The development of the Chinese expressive zhenshide: A diachronic constructional approach. Lingua 248 ► pp. 102981 ff. DOI logo
Zhan, Fangqiong & Elizabeth Closs Traugott
2020. A study of the development of the Chinese correlative comparative construction from the perspective of constructionalization. Diachronica 37:1 ► pp. 83 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 2 august 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.