2006•Journal of Ningbo Institute of EducationRequires access

The Grammaticalization of the Chinese Character "得" During the Pre-Qin Period

Hui Ma

Abstract

The conversion from a transitive verb into an auxiliary verb during the Pre-Qin period was the first important development in the evolution of the Chinese character 得.The article discusses the grammaticalization of the Chinese character 得 in terms of the following three factors:(1)the linguistic context of the Chinese character 得+predicate is the syntactic condition of the grammaticalization;(2) the function of metaphor from behavioural sphere to sphereis the important cognitive basis;(3) the strong analogizing function of the grammatical pattern——subject + auxiliary verb + verb phrase makes the Chinese character 得 to change into an auxiliary verb.

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Key concepts: Grammaticalization, Linguistics, Predicate (mathematical logic), Verb, Transitive relation, Character (mathematics), Metaphor, Modal verb