The Semantic Relevance Of Beneficiary Markers In Hunan Dialects

Centering on beneficiary marker, this paper examines the beneficiary markers and their relevant semantic roles in Hunan dialects with the tool of Semantic Map Model and grammaticalization theories.As a new tool for semantic analysis in typology, Semantic Map Model mainly studies the cross-language/dialect universals displayed by multifunctional grams. The model is based on conceptual space, which is presented by nodes and lines, with node indicating different functions in different languages/dialects and lines denoting the direct relevance between two functions. The semantic map is the representation of how a certain linguistic gram in several languages/dialects map onto the conceptual space. The arrangements of semantics/functions in conceptual space are in line with the Connectivity Hypothesis: ‘Any relevant language specific and/or constructionspecific category should map onto a connected region in conceptual space.'(Croft 2001) A typical grammaticalization involves the process whereby a content word or construction develops into a meaningless grammatical gram or a less grammaticalized form develops into a more grammaticalized form.Semantic maps show the sequences and relevance of various functions from the synchronic perspective, and these sequences can further be taken as different developing stages of semantic evolution. Data from modern synchronic Chinese dialects are used to build up semantic relevance model, while grammaticalization theories facilitate to analyze and figure out the evolution pathways for the interrelated nodes and functions and give explanations to semantic relevance. Works of Zhang Min(2008, 2013), Zhang Huiqing(2012), Zhang Ding(2010), and Wang Wei(2012) constitute the basis of the present study. When checking previous semantic maps with the data collected in this paper--multifunctional beneficiary markers in Hunan dialects, the present study finds the following problems: 1. The beneficiary role markers which can also denote human source role in Hunan dialects cannot map onto a continuous space in previous semantic maps; 2. The relevance between beneficiary and strong imperative is found in almost all Hunan dialects but is disappointedly ignored in all previous semantic maps. In an effort to solve the first problem, this paper proposes that the nodes of human source and locative source are confused in previous maps and the most improved semantic map uses source exclusively for locative source. Therefore, it is necessary to add the human source and link it with human goal so as to ensure that all beneficiary markers map onto a continuous space on semantic maps. Besides, the paper holds that there is sufficient evidence to prove that strong imperative is directly connected to beneficiary in Chinese dialects and the former is grammaticalized from the latter.