Discourse, grammar, and grammaticalization: Synchronic and diachronic analyses of Mandarin adverbial markers jiu and cai

This work explores the interrelationship of discourse, grammar and grammaticalization, by examining the synchronic and diachronic facts of two adverbial markers in Mandarin, jiu and cai. The two markers display significant functional correlation in their contemporary uses, but are completely unrelated in their original senses. By seeking to characterize the discourse functions of jiu and cai and to explain why they are used the way they are, this work provides valuable insight into the dynamic shaping and re-shaping of grammar.; On the basis of naturally-occurring conversational data, the functional distinctions between the two markers are addressed first. As linking elements, cai always signals a counter-expectation concerning the consequent proposition; jiu, on the other hand, signals a relational dependence, and may or may not be counter-expectational. As limiting elements, Jiu marks a limited scope by selecting one out of a set; cai marks a scalar contrast by pointing to the extreme end opposite to the expected value. Further discussed are the correlation between propositional status and presuppositionality, the issue of pragmatic markedness, and the distributional compatibility of the two markers with sentence-final particles.; A sample of Chinese texts representing six stages prior to modern Mandarin is used to study the grammaticalization of jiu and cai. It is found that jiu has undergone, along two distinct serial verb patterns, decategorization from a prototypical motion verb to recategorization into its adverbial and prepositional functions. Cai exemplifies a grammatical expansion based on conceptual manipulations of its semantic source. Following a stage-by-stage analysis of their diachronic development, explanatory paradigms, such as metaphorical transfer of image schema, regularities of semantic change, and discourse motivations, are provided to account for the observed changes.; With a dual concern in both variation and change, this work bridges the dichotomy between synchronic and diachronic approaches to linguistics. It also illustrates a dynamic view of language by showing that the grammar of jiu and cai is shaped, and their grammaticalization is motivated, by recurring discourse patterns as well as cognitive and interactional mechanisms inherent in the communicative situation.