Subjectivity encoding in Taiwanese Southern Min
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I-Hsuan Chen
Abstract
This paper concerns how subjectivity is encoded with a third person singular anaphor through grammaticalization in Taiwanese Southern Min. The case study of constructions hoo7-i1 and khit4hoo7-i1, which consist of the third person singular anaphor i1preceded by a functional marker, hoo7 or khit4hoo7, shows that subjectivity can be construed in terms of the speaker’s mental space for the speaker-hearer distance. The core meaning of hoo7 is ‘to give’, and hoo7 and khit4hoo7 are agentive markers in passive constructions. Hoo7-i1 and khit4hoo7-i1 are undergoing grammaticalization to become speaker-oriented discourse markers. The referent of the third person pronoun in the grammaticalized constructions can no longer be traced in the context. The model of Basic Communicative Space Network (BCSN) (Sanders, Sanders & Sweetser 2009) is adopted to account for how subjectification occurs in grammaticalization. As hoo7-i1 and khit4hoo7-i1 become grammaticalized, they encode the speaker’s perspective toward an event and reflect the Speaker-Hearer relationship.
Abstract
This paper concerns how subjectivity is encoded with a third person singular anaphor through grammaticalization in Taiwanese Southern Min. The case study of constructions hoo7-i1 and khit4hoo7-i1, which consist of the third person singular anaphor i1preceded by a functional marker, hoo7 or khit4hoo7, shows that subjectivity can be construed in terms of the speaker’s mental space for the speaker-hearer distance. The core meaning of hoo7 is ‘to give’, and hoo7 and khit4hoo7 are agentive markers in passive constructions. Hoo7-i1 and khit4hoo7-i1 are undergoing grammaticalization to become speaker-oriented discourse markers. The referent of the third person pronoun in the grammaticalized constructions can no longer be traced in the context. The model of Basic Communicative Space Network (BCSN) (Sanders, Sanders & Sweetser 2009) is adopted to account for how subjectification occurs in grammaticalization. As hoo7-i1 and khit4hoo7-i1 become grammaticalized, they encode the speaker’s perspective toward an event and reflect the Speaker-Hearer relationship.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword and Acknowledgements vii
- Editors’ introduction 1
-
Part I. Grammaticalization
- The role of historical research in building a model of Sign Language typology, variation, and change 15
- On the origin of Niger-Congo nominal classification 43
- A closer look at subjectification in the grammaticalization of English modals 67
- Subjectivity encoding in Taiwanese Southern Min 83
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Part II. Problems in historical comparison and reconstruction
- Emergence of the tone system in the Sanjiazi dialect of Manchu 101
- Searching for undetected genetic links between the languages of South America 115
- Reconstructing the category of “associated motion” in Tacanan languages (Amazonian Bolivia and Peru) 129
- The mirage of apparent morphological correspondence 153
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Part III. Historical development of morphosyntactic features
- Analogy as a source of suppletion 175
- The rise and demise of possessive classifiers in Austronesian 199
- Immediate-future readings of universal quantifier constructions 227
- The historical development and functional characteristics of the go-adjective sequence in English 243
- Recycling “junk” 267
- Sapirian ‘drift’ towards analyticity and long-term morphosyntactic change in Ancient Egyptian 289
- Language index 329
- Index of terms 333
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Foreword and Acknowledgements vii
- Editors’ introduction 1
-
Part I. Grammaticalization
- The role of historical research in building a model of Sign Language typology, variation, and change 15
- On the origin of Niger-Congo nominal classification 43
- A closer look at subjectification in the grammaticalization of English modals 67
- Subjectivity encoding in Taiwanese Southern Min 83
-
Part II. Problems in historical comparison and reconstruction
- Emergence of the tone system in the Sanjiazi dialect of Manchu 101
- Searching for undetected genetic links between the languages of South America 115
- Reconstructing the category of “associated motion” in Tacanan languages (Amazonian Bolivia and Peru) 129
- The mirage of apparent morphological correspondence 153
-
Part III. Historical development of morphosyntactic features
- Analogy as a source of suppletion 175
- The rise and demise of possessive classifiers in Austronesian 199
- Immediate-future readings of universal quantifier constructions 227
- The historical development and functional characteristics of the go-adjective sequence in English 243
- Recycling “junk” 267
- Sapirian ‘drift’ towards analyticity and long-term morphosyntactic change in Ancient Egyptian 289
- Language index 329
- Index of terms 333
