The Diachronic Study Of Causal Markers And Relevant Construction

Based on the theory of Construction Grammar,this paper investigates the evolution and formation of some typical explanatory causal markers in Chinese,such as"Wei,Yin,Yin Wei,You"and inferential causal markers"Ji,Ji Ran and Ke Jian".Combining with the characteristics of each stage of construction,this paper analyses its development track and evolutionary motivation,and probes into the Constructionalization and Constructional Change of causal marker schema level.The paper is divided into seven chapters:The first chapter is the introduction,which introduces the research status of Chinese causal markers.On the basis of previous studies,this paper puts forward the definition and Classification criteria of causal markers,and C larifies how to use Construction Grammar for research.Chapters 2,3 and 4 mainly investigate the diachronic evolution of explanatory caual markers.Chapter 2 specifically analyses the diachronic evolution of"Wei"and its related constructions,"Wei"from the verb of"help"to the explanatory causal mark,and goes through five stages:from"S+Wei+O"to"S+Wei+O _{N service object}+VP"to"CL₂,Wei+O_{NP purpose}"to"CL₂,Wei+O_{NP reason},"to"Wei CL₁,?Yin/Gu?CL₂".When the component of the causal preposition"Wei"is expanded into a predicate clause,"Wei"enters a causal complex sentence,Due to the coercion of construction and its own absorption of the meaning of construction,it promotes the evolution of"Wei"to explanatory causal mark.Chapter three investigates the diachronic evolution of"Yin""Yin Wei"and its related constructions.The semantics of the construction of"Yin"changes from the verb in the sense of"Rely on"?the preposition of"Rely on"?the preposition of"because".After evolving into cause preposition,"Yin"develops in two different directions,and becomes cause marker and result marker respectively."Yin Wei"is composed of"Yin"and"Wei",In yuan and Ming dynasties,"Yin Wei CL₁,CL₂"coexisted with"Wei Yin CL₁,CL₂".In qing dynasty,"Yin Wei CL₁,CL₂"was dominant,and"Wei Yin"gradually disappeared.Chapter Four introduces the diachronic evolution of"You"and its relate d constructions."You"in the process of evolving to"cause mark",which has gone through five stages:from the verb of"through"?the place preposition of"from"?the cause preposition of"because"?"Expository causal markers".Under the action of Coercion and anti-Coercion,"You"eventually evolved into an an explanatory causal markers.Chapters 5 and 6 scrutinize the evolution and formation of inferential causal markers.Chapter 5 discusses the diachronic evolution of"Ji""Ji Ran"and its related constructions.Based on the central semantic feature of[+already],"Ji"has experienced from adverb of"already"to adverb of"After".After that,the adverb of"meaning"goes to the process of"inferential marker",in which the key to its marking is to enter the constructions of inferential causal complex sentences.Since"Ji Ran"experienced the process of lexicalization of cross-layer structure in its diachronic evolution,The appearance of the demonstrative pronouns after the"Ji Ran"in the late Tang and Five Dynasties prompted the transformation from a syntactic unit to a lexical unit.Due to the coercion of[Y+CL₁,G+CL₂]inferential causal complex sentence construction,which promotes the evolution of"Ji Ran"into inferential markers.Chapter 6 discusses the diachronic evolution of"Ke Jian"and its related constructions.The"Ke Jian"is based on the central semantic features of[+results].The semantics has undergone gradient changes from"visual activity meaning"?"psychological perception meaning"?"inferential marker".In form,it has changed from"O_N+Ke Jian"to"S+Ke Jian+O_N"to"CL₁,Ke Jian+NP+VP"to"CL₁,Ke Jian CL₂".After"Ke Jian"enters the conclusion sentence,the core meaning of VP's syntax is highlighted,which promotes the evolution of"Ke Jian"to inferential markers.The seventh chapter scrutinizes the Constructionalization and Constructional Change of the causal marker schema,and analyzes the related characteristics of the causal marker schema in the evolution and formation process.By investigating the constructions of"Wei""Yin""Yin We""You""Ji""Ji Ran""Ke Jian"and the schematic constructionali zation and construction change of causal markers,We can see that the causal markers will enter into the[Y+CL₁,G+CL₂]in the process of evolution after the language users have reduced the causal complex sentence to a template of[Y+CL₁,G+CL₂].The position of Y or G will be suppressed by the template of causal complex sentences.In addition,it will absorb the constructional meaning or the pragmatic meaning of the construction itself,and eventually,become a member of the position of Y or G.