Pragmaticalization Of Pragmatic Markers In Mandarin Chinese

This dissertation takes the corpus-based approach in its attempt to explain the historical development of Chinese pragmatic markers through the study of two specific cases: BUGUO不过and XKAN X看(NI/WOKAN), which both have developed to emerge and function as pragmatic markers from expressions of non-pragmatic origin. We argue in the present study that such a historical rise of pragmatic markers and other similar items belongs to pragmaticalization, which is different from grammaticalization, a term that has been wrongly used by some scholars to cover an excessively wide range of linguistic phenomena. The objective of the present study is twofold.Firstly, this dissertation endeavors to explain how and why such discourse-pragmatic function changes take place. As is known, most of the previous studies concerning the historical evolution of BUGUO and XKAN as well as other Chinese pragmatic markers are carried our on the basis of synchronic data (mainly on the data of Present-day Mandarin), thus failing to provide detailed and convincing evidences to account for the historical processes involved. Seeing this loophole, the present study integrates both synchronic and diachronic analysis in the study of BUGUO and XKAN. From the synchronic perspective, we not only emphasize the status of BUGUO and XKAN as pragmatic markers but also explore the various pragmatic functions performed by these constructions in Present-day Mandarin. From the diachronic perspective, we exploit the corpus of ancient Chinese (from the Western Zhou Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty) to show the use of these expressions at different stages of the Chinese language as well as the phonological, semantic and syntactic changes accompanying their historical evolution. It is our hope to reconstruct the paths which these two expressions have followed in the process of their pragmaticalization. We show that the pragmatic markers in question have developed through successive stages of semantic and syntactic changes from forms of non-pragmatic origin, which were mainly used as sentence predicate verbs at the very beginning.The second objective of this dissertation is to prove that the historical formation of pragmatic markers such as BUGUO and XKAN belongs to pragmaticalization instead of grammaticalization. As known, different scholars hold different opinions concerning the nature of the historical rise of pragmatic markers. Some hold that the rise of pragmatic markers does not pattern well with typical cases of grammaticalization and postulate the notion"pragmaticalization"to account for their diachronic formation (e.g., Erman and Kotsinas 1993, Aijmer 1994). However, more authors following Traugott take a more inclusive view of grammaticalization and subsume the historical evolution of pragmatic markers under it by postulating subjectification as an independent mode of semantic change shared by the rise of both pragmatic markers and grammatical categories. To verify our claim of pragmaticalization for the historical rise of pragmatic markers, we check the results of both the synchronic and the diachronic analysis of BUGUO and XKAN against Lehmann's (1995) six parameters of grammaticalization and Traugott's expanded view of grammaticalization, two main lines of argument in the theory of grammaticalization. We demonstrate that neither view can be applied successfully to the historical rise of BUGUO and XKAN as pragmatic markers.The significance of the present study lies in the following five aspects:Firstly, based on the corpus of Present-day Mandarin, the dissertation not only exploits but also categorizes the pragmatic functions of BUGUO and XKAN by utilizing Halliday's categorization of language functions as well as relevant theories of pragmatics and discourse analysis.Secondly, based on the corpus of ancient Chinese, it probes into the pragmaticalizing processes of BUGUO and XKAN and gives a detailed description of their distributions, semantic and syntactic characteristics at various stages of the Chinese language. The specific historical routes which BUGUO and XKAN have followed in the process of their pragmaticalization are also reconstructed on the basis of historical data.Thirdly, by adopting theories of cognitive linguistics, pragmatics and semantic change, it exploits the motivations as well as the semantic and syntactic mechanisms involved in the pragmaticalization of BUGUO and XKAN.Fourthly, through checking the historical development of BUGUO and XKAN from being verb clause to functioning as pragmatic markers and the accompanying characteristics against Lehmman's six parameters of grammaticalization and Traugott's expanded view of grammaticalization, it proves with success that these two main lines of argumentation in grammaticalization all fail to account for the historical rise of pragmatic markers. It thus proposes that the rise of pragmatic markers such as BUGUO and XKAN belongs to pragmaticalization instead of grammaticalization. This can further sharpen our understanding of the nature of pragmatic markers and the scope of grammaticalization theory.Finally, it provides a tentative discussion on the definition and possible clines of pragmaticalization as well as its likely relations with grammaticalization.