The grammaticalization of the Chinese morpheme "ke"

• Main Author: 黃建智
• Other Authors: 林雪娥
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2007
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/90540555342289668062

碩士 === 國立臺灣師範大學 === 英語學系 === 95 === The present study investigates the divergent functions of the Chinese morpheme ke in the diachronic perspective, within the account of grammaticalization theory. Data of eight periods of Chinese are examined and 100 tokens of ke are selected from each text of the eight periods. The selected texts are Shangshu and Shijing (Early Old Chinese, 11th B.C. – 6th B.C.), Lunyu (Late Old Chinese, 5th – 3rd B.C.), Shiji (Pre-Middle Chinese, 2nd B.C, – 3rd A.D.), Shishuoxinyu (Early Middle Chinese, 3rd – 6th A.D.), Dunhuangbianwen (Late Middle Chinese, 7th – 13th A.D.), Shuihuzhuan (Early Pre-Modern Chinese, 13th – 16th A.D.), Honloumeng (Late Pre-Modern Chinese, 17th – 19th A.D.) and Lianhefukan (Modern Chinese, 21st A.D.~). This study is data-driven in nature, without any a priori assumptions. The analysis of data is conducted on the basis of ke’s semantic meaning and pragmatic inference. Cultural factors and contextual factors such as background information and relations between the speaker and the addressee are also taken into consideration. It is hoped that, through this comprehensive diachronic investigation, the relationships among and developments of ke’s divergent functions can be well accounted for. It is found that since Early Old Chinese, ke has functioned as a transitive verb, as an intransitive verb, as a dynamic possibility modal (a circumstantial use and a rational use), and as a deontic necessity modal. Its verbal uses have been rare since then, whereas its modal uses, especially the dynamic ones, have been predominant. In Late Old Chinese, ke starts to function as a deontic modal expressing permission. In Late Middle Chinese, ke can function as a volitional modal, as an emphatic adverb, and as a prefix ‘-able’. In Late Pre-Modern Chinese, the contrastive meaning of ke’s emphatic adverbial use becomes strengthened. In Modern Chinese, the adverbial ke’s contrastive inference is conventionalized and develops into a contrastive conjunction. Furthermore, ke also functions as an epistemic possibility modal, realized by可能 keneng. Regarding the disuse of ke’s old functions, its function as a transitive verb does not occur anymore after Early Middle Chinese and its function intransitive verb use of ‘to be competent’ does not occur after Late Old Chinese. Moreover, its use as deontic necessity modal is not found in Modern Chinese. The development of ke’s functions accords with the theory of grammaticalization. Its dynamic modal use is derived from its transitive verb use through three stages of reanalysis (Xing 2003). Its function as a dynamic rational modal derives from its function as a dynamic circumstantial modal and its function as a deontic modal develops from its function as a dynamic ration modal. Both changes involve subjectification. Generally speaking, the early stages of ke’s grammaticalization from a verb to a modal and from a transitive verb to an intransitive verb involve the mechanism of metaphor while the later developments of ke’s grammaticalization concern the mechanism of metonymy: both the adverbial function and the conjunctive function of ke are instances of conventionalization of its contextual implicatures. Frequency effect and lexicalization have also involves in ke’s grammaticalization. Asides form its prefix use and volitional use, ke’s modal alternant keyi and its adverbial alternant keshi are the manifestations of frequency effect and lexicalization. The development of ke’s divergent functions has illustrated the grammaticalization from concrete to abstract, objective to subjective, and from subject-oriented to speaker-oriented.