A typological study of disposal constructions in Sinitic languages

Abstract

This dissertation presents an in-depth exploratory study of disposal constructions across Sinitic languages, aiming to provide a comprehensive re-examination and offer fresh perspectives. The research concentrates on a selection of representative Chinese dialects, underpinned by meticulous analysis of first-hand data collected through fieldwork. Disposal constructions in Sinitic languages are categorized into three primary types: the prepositional type, the preverbal auxiliary type, and the postverbal resumptive type. The prepositional type, exemplified by the ba-construction in Mandarin, is the most typical and extensively researched among the three types. This study begins with a detailed re-examination of the ba-construction in Pekingese from a new perspective to explore fundamental argument realization patterns in transitive clauses. It unveils a split system of transitive clauses with two primary patterns: the SVO pattern and the ba-construction, conditioned by syntactic and discourse factors. The split system is influenced by the nature of the core arguments, verb types, tense-aspect-mood (TAM) of the event, and the discourse function of the clause, reminiscent of the split-ergative phenomenon observed in various languages worldwide. The split system is defined by the Definiteness Hierarchy, the Animacy Hierarchy, the Verb-type Hierarchy, and the 'Resultative Principle' in events. The ba-construction signifies high-transitivity events, while the SVO pattern is employed for low-transitivity events. Thus, the active voice in Pekingese, with its bifurcated transitive clause system, diverges from the exclusive SVO pattern seen in languages like English. The preverbal auxiliary disposal construction, established as a new type of disposal construction in this study, is exemplified by the khai lɔi(𢬿來)-construction in Chengxiang Hakka and the GIVE-VP construction in Pekingese, Tianjin, and Xi'an dialects. These constructions represent the TAKE-type and the GIVE-type preverbal auxiliary disposal constructions, each with distinct origins and grammaticalization pathways. The disposal auxiliaries also syncretize the anticausative function, prompting an exploration of anticausative constructions in Sinitic languages. This study demonstrates that the anticausative construction is a primary voice construction and the 'causative-anticausative' opposition constitutes the basic voice opposition in Sinitic languages. The seemingly paradoxical grammatical shift-the transition from the disposal (causative) construction to an anticausative construction-has been demonstrated as a recurrent phenomenon across all three types of disposal constructions. The postverbal resumptive disposal construction involves the OV type and the VO type, with the basic OV type widespread across southern and central Sinitic languages. The resumptive disposal marker primarily serves to fill the postverbal object slot of resultative verb compounds when the patient is topicalized and moved out. Grammaticalization pathways from disposal to anticausative markers and to agentivity intensifiers are also discussed. This study suggests that disposal prepositions and auxiliaries can be regarded as causative markers with a valency-increasing function, while the disposal pronoun (or affix) serves as a causative indicator of high transitivity of the preceding resultative verb compound. The study introduces a grammaticalization cycle of 'causative (disposal) > anticausative' across Sinitic languages from a historical perspective.

Date of Award	2024
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Supervisor	Min ZHANG (Supervisor)