On The Grammarization Of Adverb Fanzheng And Some Related Issues

This paper explores the evolution track of the modal adverb "fanzheng (反正)" and the motivations to promote the evolution and, meanwhile, explains the relevant phenomena noticed and unnoticed by the predecessors in the light of grammaticalization theories.The modal adverb "fanzheng"is not the product of Chinese word-formation mechanisms, but the product of grammaticalization, with the evolution track from coordinate phrase (in Song danasty), compound, through adverb (in the end of Qing danasty), to discourse marker (in contemporary times). The process can also be divided into two stages:the formation of the adverb "fanzheng"and the formation of the discourse marker "fanzheng". During the grammaticalization of the adverb "fanzheng", three significant factors emerged in turn to play a critical role:the first one is its semantic extension, which results from the emergence of "pros and cons"meaning; the second one is the analogy mechanism, which has an influence on the word meaning of "fanzheng" after its semantic bleach; and the third one is pragmatic inference, which advances the degree of subjectivization.During the grammaticalization of discourse marker from adverb,"fanzheng"goes through the sequence of "verbal adverb>sentential adverb>discourse word", with the scope gradually extending from the main verb in predicate initially to the whole clause eventually. With the influence of pragmatic inference,"fanzheng"scrambles to the clause-initial position, resulting in the scope extending from the clause to the discourse and, correspondingly, the function as a discourse word. From the historical view, it is very difficult for "fanzheng", originally as a coordination construction, to realize grammaticalization directly through metaphor as its deviation from the Pollyana Principle. In such a situation,"fanzheng"tends to disappear in a long time in competition with the form-identical verb-object construction, although it occurs far more frequently than "Zhengfan"owing to its rhythmic appropriation. Until Qing danasty, it moves into the grammaticalization track after its semantic extension.Although a new grammatical property has evolved from the coordination construction "fanzheng", the original word form remains as a free constituent. This is the so-called "differentiation"in grammaticalization theory. At first, with the emergence of adverbal use,"fanzheng" holds two parts of speech with the same word form. However, with the progression in the grammaticalization track, its original verb-adverbial use does not disappear completely in spite of its use as a discourse marker, that is to say, the construction"S, NP+fangzheng+VP"also occurs occasionally though in the declining trend.