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Article published In: Functions of Language
Vol. 32:2 (2025) ► pp.163–199

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The semantic continuum from disposition to causative meaning

Diachronic changes of the Chinese NP1+bǎ+NP2+VP construction

 | Institute of Curriculum and Textbook Research, Ministry of Education, P. R. China |
ORCiD logo with link | School of Foreign Languages, Beihang University
Published online: 25 September 2025
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/fol.23049.zuo
Abstract
This paper contributes to the study of actualization through a case study on the development of the Chinese NP1+bǎ+NP2+VP construction. Actualization is the process following syntactic reanalysis in which new linguistic structures diffuse and extend their usage. Data are sourced from The Centre for Chinese Linguistics (CCL) Corpus. Multiple Correspondence Analysis is employed to explore the dynamic relationships among several subconstructions, and Multidimensional Scaling is adopted to visualize the continuity of their meanings. The findings indicate that: (1) the subconstructions form a continuum from expressing disposition meanings to causative meanings; (2) over time, the manipulation of NP1 to NP2 decreases, while the affectedness of NP2 increases; (3) evidence of actualization is observed in the expansion of both semantic and syntactic distributional contexts. These results challenge prevalent claims regarding the high affectedness of the argument marked by bǎ and present further evidence for the ongoing debate over directionality in language change. These findings lend support to the gradualness (Traugott, Elizabeth C. & Graeme Trousdale. 2010. Gradience, gradualness and grammaticalization: How do they intersect? In Elizabeth C. Traugott & Graeme Trousdale (eds.), Gradience, gradualness and grammaticalization, 19–44. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar) and diffusion hypotheses (. 2016. How gradual change progresses: The interaction between convention and innovation. Language Variation and Change 28(1). 83–102. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar) of language change, and supplement these hypotheses by proposing that the actualization process can be influenced by the token frequency of existing patterns.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The Chinese BA construction and its theoretical background
    • 2.1The Chinese BA construction
    • 2.2Theoretical background
  • 3.Methodology
    • 3.1Data collection
    • 3.2Data annotation
      • 3.2.1Animacy of NP1 and NP2
      • 3.2.2Volition of the causer
      • 3.2.3Semantic role of NP2
      • 3.2.4Affectedness of NP2
      • 3.2.5Degree of causation
      • 3.2.6Syntactic type of the VP
    • 3.3Statistical techniques
  • 4.Results and discussion
    • 4.1Relative frequencies of disposition constructions over time
    • 4.2Visualization of semantic change
    • 4.3The actualization process of disposition constructions
  • 5.Conclusions
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviation list
  • References
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