Studies On Diachronic Evolvements Of The Speech Verb Shuo And Discourse Markers Involving Shuo

This thesis aims at studying the diachronic grammaticalized evolvement of the speech verb shuo,which means say,in Chinese,which includes the word itself and discourse markers involving the morpheme.Say,as the verb with the highest frequency of use,is a suitable target for the further research of the evolvement principles,agents and mechanisms of grammaticalization.In addition,it will also reveal the different stages of the word's evolvement and explain the agents and mechanisms.However,relevant researches are slightly insufficient and inadequate in some respects,and it is the reason for which some new theoretical frameworks and some novel research perspectives would be introduced,in particular the application of the semantic map.Thus,the correlation among the senses of the verb shuo could be revealed for the purpose of explaining its features,characteristics,semantic distribution,pragmatical functions,grammaticalized paths,evolving agents and mechanisms.The thesis is divided into seven chapters,consisting of an introduction,a conclusion and five main parts.As an introduction,chapter one defines the research target with clarifying the scope of the research,explaining the methodology and the relevant corpuses under the guidance of the theories and principles of Two Triangles,Grammaticalization,Conversation Analysis and Typology.Some influential achievements and concepts from various research perspectives are discussed in chapter two.Phonetic features,senses,collocative and following words and phrases have been studied in traditional syntactic and semantic views.To some extent,the analyses regarding the verb shuo are not in abundance,including the descriptions about diachronic development,distributions in different periods,evolving paths,agents and mechanisms.Furthermore,research results about discourse markers involving shuo usually focus on the pragmatic functions of different types synchronically,lacking of the differentiation and analysis on the verb's evolvement stages,evolving agents and mechanisms.Although some investigations targeting individual languages have been examined from a typological view,the general linguistic character has not been revealed.The semantic features and characteristics of shuo in different periods are demonstrated with semantic maps in chapter three.The distribution of senses has changed greatly during the past 2000 years.The most stable field is the field of the act of speaking,varying greatly and occupying differently but always existing,which represents the core usage of the verb shuo.In contrast,the field of the result of speaking has a decreasing trend till now.As a newly usage,shuo can be discourse markers individually or combining with other morphemes or words.The using method appeared in Yuan and Ming dynasties initially and keeps an upward tendency since then.Shuo as discourse markers has been a hot topic for researchers because of its various forms and functions along with an increasing frequency of use.Shuo has practical semantic meanings in ancient Chinese which refers to specific behaviors,contents and results.However,the semantic meanings evolved grammatically since pragmatic functions have been emphasized gradually.There are a strong and close connection between semantic evolvement and grammaticalized paths.Grammaticalized paths,agents and mechanisms are explored in chapter four.With the guidance of the theories of grammaticalization,semantic and pragmatic changes of shuo have been discussed.As a result,several grammaticalized paths have been concluded after deducing relevant agents and mechanisms.There are four paths for the evolvement of shuo:1.the sense of speaking>the result of speaking>a literary form marker.2.the sense of speaking>quotative>quotation/evidential>a complementizer.3.the sense of speaking>the sense of considering>the sense of cognition>a complementizer/a discourse marker.4.the sense of speaking>a topic marker>an exemplifying marker>an assumption marker>a discourse marker.Shuo evolves different functions during the semantic evolvement,such as the functions of quotative,quotation or evidential.Thus shuo can be a complementizer,a topic marker,an exemplifying marker,an assumption marker or a discourse marker in a sentence.The agents and mechanisms contributing to grammaticalization of shuo include semantic bleaching,high frequency,reanalysis,metonymic mechanisms,subjectification and intersubjectification.Selecting"??(shuo)","??(woshuo)" and "???(nishuoni)" as examples,the evolved routes,agents and mechanisms of grammaticalization of discourse markers involving the morpheme shuo have been analyzed in chapter five.As a discourse marker,"??(bieshuo)" has apparent distribution features with pragmatic functions,such as signifying disagreement,affirming information,reminding attention,and inducing explanation.Derived from the verb phrase "do not say",the discourse marker "??(bieshuo)" grammaticalizes along with the path,which is showing negative>signifying disagreemen>affirming informatio>reminding attention>inducing explanation.The agents contributing to grammaticalization of "??(bieshuo)" include reanalysis,decategorization,subjectification and intersubjectification."??(woshuo)" can be used in vast and varied sentence structures and often appears initially."??(woshuo)" has some pragmatic functions,including reminding and instructing,or realizing and explaining suddenly,or expressing criticism,persuasion,verification,agreement and praise.There are three different paths for grammaticalization of“??(woshuo)",including 1.the sense of speaking>reminding and instructing or persuasion.2.Cognition>verification>sudden realization and explanation>agreement and praise.3.cognition>sudden realization and explanation>criticism.High frequency,reanalysis and subjectivity are the factors which contribute to grammaticalization of "??(woshuo)"."???(nishuoni)"appears in sentence patterns flexibily which can be described as:(P,)???(nishuoni)X,X referring to the objects.The commonest co-occurrence parts of“???(nishuoni)"are derogatory or negative contents to achieve some particular pragmatic functions,such as converting the turn,euphemism of negation and criticism.Deriving from a verbal phrase,“???(nishuoni)”grammaticalizes along three different paths,including 1.speaking function>inducing a topic or converting the statement>converting the topic.2.speaking function>signifying>dissatisfaction>euphemism of negation.3.speaking function>signifying anger or criticism>criticism.Factors contributing to the grammaticalization of“???(nishuoni)" include reanalysis,decategorization,subjectivity and intersubjectivity.Since the notional meanings of shuo have evaporated,the word has developed textual functions,interpersonal functions and contextual functions.Grammaticalization of discourse markers involving the morpheme shuo attributes to high frequency,reanalysis,decategorization,subjectivity and intersubjectivity.Grammaticalized development and evolving paths of the speaking verb shuo have been verified in a typological perspective.Observing the corresponding SAY-verb among Chinese dialects,some minority languages and other foreign languages share similar results with Mandarin,like achieving pragmatic functions of being quotative,quotation,subordinary markers or a complementizer.Based on the previous researches,the verb shuo has five different grammaticalized paths,including 1.the act of speaking>the result of speaking>a literary form marker.2.the act of speaking>the sense of considering>the sense of cognition>a complementizer/a discourse marker.3.a.the act of speaking>quotative>quotation>evidential simile>a modal particle;b.the act of speaking>quotative>quotation/evidential>a complementizer>a subordinating conjunction>a purpose/conditional/modal marker.4.a.the act of speaking>a topic marker>an exemplifying marker>an assumption marker>a complementizer;b.the act of speaking>a topic marker>an exemplifying marker>an assumption marker>a discourse marker.Shuo in Mandarin has a clear development in different diachronic periods comparatively,which provides an efficient support for the research.The evolvement how shuo grammaticalizes from a notional word to a function word has proven the feasibility of studying a multifunctional gram with semantic maps in a cross-linguistic perspective,which also provides a new approach for the further research.The seventh and the last chapter is the epilogue of the thesis.It concludes the research contents and results by means of summarizing the studying methods,experiences and analyzing the incomplete parts of the research.