A Study On The Diachronic Development Of The Patient-subject Construction

Patient-subject construction has played a very important role in the history ofChinese grammar. There is a vast literature on the analysis of subject and predicate inthe patient-subject construction, but little description on the internal structure of thisconstruction In this article we will mainly focus on the developments of sentencestructures of patient-subject construction in ancient Chinese, middle Chinese andpre-mandarin Chinese. Firstly, we classify patient-subject constructions into ninetypes, and the use of every type of patient-subject constructions is illustrated in detail.Then we conclude the main characteristics of each type and its developments indifferent periods in the history of Chinese. The relationship between patient-subjectconstruction and the disposal construction, patient-subject construction and theconstruction of object-fronting is also discussed.Patient-subject sentence has already existed in pre-Qin period, and itsconstruction is relatively simple during this period. Middle Chinese is a veryimportant period in the development of patient-subject construction, in this time it hasbegun to introduce the structure of verb complement and logical subject in a complexobject under the influence of the decline of anaphora “zhi” and emergence of verbcomplement. And till Tang and Wudai dynasties, almost all the types of patient-subjectconstruction have come into being. In pre-mandarin Chinese period, patient-subjectconstruction keeps on its development, especially those with V+complementconstruction or with sentence-final particles..