The Dative Markers of Chinese Dialects in Hunan: A Typological Study

Abstract

Despite extensive research on GIVE verbs, the study of dative markers in Chinese remains an under-researched area. This gap is particularly evident for the complex dative systems found in Hunan dialects, which have received limited scholarly attention. To address this, the present study employs Hunan dialects as a case study to investigate the origins of dative markers in Chinese dialects and trace their grammaticalization pathways.

The study yields three key findings: (i) The lexical sources of dative markers across Hunan dialects consistently share core semantic features related to possession transfer and spatial transformation. (ii) The following grammaticalization pathways are newly identified: (1) a. Original giving verbs [+manner] > GIVE verb > Dative, b. [PUT-ALL] > GIVE verb > Dative; (2) Directional verb > Dative; (3) Directional verb > GIVE verb > Dative. (iii) The emergence of the preverbal dative structure is attributed to language and dialect contact, specifically, contact between Chinese dialects in northwestern Hunan and Tujia, as well as contact between Tuhua and Gan.

Date of Award	2025
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Supervisor	Yuk Man Carine YIU (Supervisor)