Chapter 11. The diachronic development of postverbal dé 得 in Chinese
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Barbara Meisterernst
Abstract
The modal dé 得 is one of the modal verbs of possibility in Late Archaic Chinese (LAC) and Early Middle Chinese (EMC). Different from other modals verbs of possibility, which are confined to preverbal position, dé 得 ‘obtain, get, manage to, can’ occurs in two different positions in Modern Chinese and other Sinitic languages: preverbal and postverbal. This chapter argues that the two different functions of de in modern Sinitic languages reflect two syntactic instantiations of de in LAC and EMC. The preverbal modal auxiliary developed from the modal auxiliary verb dé ‘manage to, can’, which only allows a vP complement, and the postverbal de developed from the lexical verb dé ‘get, obtain’, which allows a CP complement.
Abstract
The modal dé 得 is one of the modal verbs of possibility in Late Archaic Chinese (LAC) and Early Middle Chinese (EMC). Different from other modals verbs of possibility, which are confined to preverbal position, dé 得 ‘obtain, get, manage to, can’ occurs in two different positions in Modern Chinese and other Sinitic languages: preverbal and postverbal. This chapter argues that the two different functions of de in modern Sinitic languages reflect two syntactic instantiations of de in LAC and EMC. The preverbal modal auxiliary developed from the modal auxiliary verb dé ‘manage to, can’, which only allows a vP complement, and the postverbal de developed from the lexical verb dé ‘get, obtain’, which allows a CP complement.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Editors’ introduction 1
- Chapter 1. Signs of prehistoric language shifts involving Unangam Tunuu (Aleut) 8
- Chapter 2. Early compound accent in Japanese Tōkyō -type dialects 36
- Chapter 3. Phylogenetic signal in the lexicon 59
- Chapter 4. Solving Galton’s problem 74
- Chapter 5. Re-examining initial geminates 109
- Chapter 6. Recurrent change in pronouns 146
- Chapter 7. The role of geography and migration in the branching and spread of the Japonic language family 172
- Chapter 8. Iconicity principles from an evolutionary perspective 194
- Chapter 9. Modality across semantic spaces 216
- Chapter 10. Something out of nothing 240
- Chapter 11. The diachronic development of postverbal dé 得 in Chinese 260
- Chapter 12. Food, contact phenomena and reconstruction in Oriental Berber 283
- Chapter 13. A cognitive-typological perspective on the origins of causative‑applicative polysemy 330
- Index 367
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Editors’ introduction 1
- Chapter 1. Signs of prehistoric language shifts involving Unangam Tunuu (Aleut) 8
- Chapter 2. Early compound accent in Japanese Tōkyō -type dialects 36
- Chapter 3. Phylogenetic signal in the lexicon 59
- Chapter 4. Solving Galton’s problem 74
- Chapter 5. Re-examining initial geminates 109
- Chapter 6. Recurrent change in pronouns 146
- Chapter 7. The role of geography and migration in the branching and spread of the Japonic language family 172
- Chapter 8. Iconicity principles from an evolutionary perspective 194
- Chapter 9. Modality across semantic spaces 216
- Chapter 10. Something out of nothing 240
- Chapter 11. The diachronic development of postverbal dé 得 in Chinese 260
- Chapter 12. Food, contact phenomena and reconstruction in Oriental Berber 283
- Chapter 13. A cognitive-typological perspective on the origins of causative‑applicative polysemy 330
- Index 367
