Home › Languages › Mandarin Chinese
Mandarin Chinese
Glottocode: mand1415
Genalogical classification: Sino-Tibetan
Original alignment pattern: Neuter
Source construction: Constructions of the type 'take X (and) VERB (X)', where the verb bǎ 'take' and some other verb share a P argument, as in (1).
Developmental mechanism: The verb bǎ 'take' is reinterpreted as a marker for the shared P argument, and the original biclausal construction is reanalyzed as a monoclausal construction 'ACC X VERB'.
Resulting construction: Transitive construction with a P argument overtly marked by bǎ.
Type of change: Grammaticalization
Alignment in the resulting construction: Nominative-Accusative
Global alignment pattern following the change: Nominative-Accusative
Grammatical domains: Case marking
Symmetry: Asymmetric
Type of data: Historical data
References: Li & Thompson 1974
Examples
(1) Classical Chinese (Sino-Tibetan; Li & Thompson 1974:202)
| Yù | qīng | bǎ | tīan | zhǐ | ruì-lìng | yǐ | zhēn | yǒu | Miáo |
| Yu | himself | take | heaven | POSS | mandate | to | conquer | PTCL | Miao |
‘Yu himself took the mandate of heaven to conquer Miao.’ (Mè-zǐ, 5th century BCE)
(2) Mandarin Chinese (Sino-Tibetan; Li & Thompson 1974:203)
| Tāmen | bǎ | Zhāg-sān | [...] | jǐantao | le | lǐan | xîaoshi |
| They | OBJ | Zhang-san | scrutinize | ASP | two | hours |
‘They scrutinized Zhang-san for two hours.’