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The development of the Chinese multifunctional construction V+qilai

From a complement-taking predicate to a discourse marker

ORCiD logo with link | Nanyang Technological University National Institute of Education
Published online: 27 May 2025
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/prag.24010.zha
Abstract
This paper examines the multiple functions of the construction V+qilai as a discourse marker (DM) in Modern Chinese, as well as its historical development. I argue that V+qilai serves various functions in Modern Chinese, including as an elaborative, contrastive, inferential, and topic shift marker. While some research has explored the evolution of the chunked V+qilai, none have approached it from a diachronic constructional perspective or provided a convincing developmental trajectory of the DM. Drawing on extensive classical data, I maintain that the DM V+qilai originated from a directional verbal phrase used as a complement-taking predicate, evolved into a circumstantial adverbial, then into a conjunct, and finally into a DM. This trajectory aligns partially with the Trajectory Hypothesis proposed by . 2022. Discourse Structuring Markers. John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar for the evolution of DMs in English. This study contributes to cross-linguistic typological research on the emergence of pragmatic and discourse devices and how text coherence develops in human languages.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Previous studies on DM
    • 2.1Guidelines for identifying DMs
    • 2.2The Trajectory Hypothesis
    • 2.3Previous synchronic and diachronic studies on the DM V+qilai
  • 3.Data and framework
    • 3.1The constructional framework
    • 3.2Data and methodology
  • 4.V+qilai as a DM in Modern Chinese
  • 5.The development of the DM V+qilai
  • 6.A constructional account of the development of the DM V+qilai
    • 6.1A constructional model of the development of the DM V+qilai
    • 6.2The constructional network of DMs
    • 6.3The factors enabling the emergence of the DM V+qilai
      • 6.3.1Neoanalysis
      • 6.3.2Analogization
      • 6.3.3Subjectification
  • 7.Conclusion
  • Statements
  • Notes
  • References
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