Cover not available

Article published In: Studies in Language
Vol. 44:4 (2020) ► pp.917–963

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
authorization required

Multiple functions of the Cantonese ‘wait’ verb dang2 and their historical development

ORCiD logo with link | The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Published online: 4 September 2020
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/sl.19011.lai
Abstract
The diachronic development of morphemes meaning ‘wait’ has not been well documented. This paper describes multiple functions of the ‘wait’ verb dang2 in Hong Kong Cantonese: (a) a verb meaning ‘be in need of’, (b) a permissive verb meaning ‘let’, (c) a causative verb meaning ‘cause’, (d) a temporal marker meaning ‘at, when’, (e) a particle for giving notice of a coming event, and (f) a subordinating conjunction signifying someone’s surprise. Four development paths are proposed to account for the multifunctionality: ‘wait’ > (a); ‘wait’ > (d); ‘wait’ > (b) > (e); and ‘wait’ > (c) > (f). This case draws attention to the potential of ‘wait’ morphemes to be employed to express various other abstract concepts and, furthermore, highlights the role of indirect sources in the theory of grammaticalization.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2. Dang2 ‘wait’
  • 3.‘Wait’ verb > ‘be in need of’ verb
    • 3.1 Dang2 as ‘be in need of’: Synchronic description
    • 3.2 Dang2 as ‘be in need of’: Diachronic analysis
  • 4.‘Wait’ verb > ‘at, when’ temporal marker
    • 4.1 Dang2 as ‘at, when’: Synchronic description
    • 4.2 Dang2 as ‘at, when’: Diachronic analysis
  • 5.‘Wait’ verb > ‘let’ permissive verb > particle for giving notice
    • 5.1 Dang2 as ‘let’: Synchronic description
    • 5.2 Dang2 as ‘let’: Diachronic analysis
    • 5.3 Dang2 as a particle for giving notice: Synchronic description
    • 5.4 Dang2 as a particle for giving notice: Diachronic analysis
  • 6.‘Wait’ verb > ‘cause’ causative verb > conjunction signifying someone’s surprise
    • 6.1 Dang2 as ‘cause’: Synchronic description
    • 6.2 Dang2 as ‘cause’: Diachronic analysis
    • 6.3 Dang2 as a conjunction signifying someone’s surprise: Synchronic description
    • 6.4 Dang2 as a conjunction signifying someone’s surprise: Diachronic analysis
  • 7.Conclusions and implications
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
References (59)
References
Alvarez-Pereyre, Michael. 2011. Using film as linguistic specimen. In Roberta Piazza, Monika Bednarek & Fabio Rossi (eds), Telecinematic discourse: Approaches to the language of films and television series, 47–67. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ball, James Dyer. 1883. Cantonese made easy. Hong Kong: China Mail Office.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1888. Cantonese made easy. 2nd ed. Hong Kong: China Mail Office.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1902. How to speak Cantonese. 2nd ed. Hong Kong: Kelly & Walsh.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bridgman, Elijah Coleman. 1841. A Chinese chrestomathy in the Canton dialect. Macao: S. Wells Williams.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bruce, Donald E. 1877. Easy phrases in the Canton dialect of the Chinese language. 2nd ed. San Francisco: Bruce’s Printing House.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Carlson, Gregory Norman. 1977. Reference to kinds in English. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Amherst PhD dissertation.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chang, Li-li (張麗麗). 2005. Cong shiyi dao zhishi 從使役到致使 [The causativisation of Chinese shi-yi constructions]. Taida Wenshizhe Xuebao 臺大文史哲學報 [Humanitas Taiwanica] 621. 119–151.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chappell, Hilary M. 2015. Linguistic areas in China for differential object marking, passive, and comparative constructions. In Hilary M. Chappell (ed.), Diversity in Sinitic languages, 13–52. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cheung, Samuel Hung-nin. 1992. The pretransitive in Cantonese. In Chinese languages and linguistics, vol. 11, 241–303. Taipei: Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2006. One language, two systems: A phonological study of two Cantonese language manuals of 1888. Bulletin of Chinese Linguistics 1(1). 171–199. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cheung, Samuel Hung-nin (張洪年). 2007. Xianggang yueyu yufa de yanjiu 香港粵語語法的研究 [A grammar of Cantonese as spoken in Hong Kong]. Rev. ed. Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chin, Andy C. (錢志安). 2013. Yueyu yanjiu xin ziyuan: Xianggang ershi shiji zhongqi yueyu yuliaoku 粵語研究新資源：《香港二十世紀中期粵語語料庫》 [New resources for Cantonese language studies: A linguistic corpus of mid-20th century Hong Kong Cantonese ]. Zhongguo Yuwen Tongxun 中國語文通訊 [Newsletter of Chinese Language] 92(1). 7–16.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
DeLancey, Scott. 1997. Mirativity: The grammatical marking of unexpected information. Linguistic Typology 11. 33–52. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dryer, Matthew S. 1992. The Greenbergian word order correlations. Language 68(1). 81–138. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2003. Word order in Sino-Tibetan languages from a typological and geographical perspective. In Graham Thurgood & Randy J. LaPolla (eds.), The Sino-Tibetan languages, 43–55. London/New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Evans, Nicholas & David Wilkins. 2000. In the mind’s ear: The semantic extensions of perception verbs in Australian languages. Language 76(3). 546–592. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Feng, Chuntian (馮春田). 2000. Jindai hanyu yufa yanjiu 近代漢語語法研究 [A study of the grammar of Modern Chinese]. Jinan: Shandong Education Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fox, Anthony, Kang-Kwong Luke & Owen Nancarrow. 2008. Aspects of intonation in Cantonese. Journal of Chinese Linguistics 36(2). 321–367.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Francis, Elaine J. & Stephen Matthews. 2005. A multi-dimensional approach to the category ‘verb’ in Cantonese. Journal of Linguistics 411. 269–305. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fulton, Albert Andrew. 1931. Progressive and idiomatic sentences in Cantonese colloquial. 5th ed. Hong Kong/Shanghai/Singapore: Kelly & Walsh.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gnutzmann, Claus. 1975. Some aspects of grading. English Studies 56(5). 421–433. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Harris, Alice C. & Lyle Campbell. 1995. Historical syntax in cross-linguistic perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
He, Liang (何亮). 2005. Fangyan zhong deng zi biao beidong de chengyin tanxi 方言中「等」字表被動的成因探析 [The contributing factor of the passive mark ‘deng’ in dialects]. Yuyan Kexue 語言科學 [Linguistic Sciences] 4(1). 40–45.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
He, Zhong-dong (何忠東) & Chong-xing Li (李崇興). 2004. Hanyu shiyi beidong guilüxing yanbian de fangyan zuozheng: Hanshou fangyan zhong de deng zi beidongju 漢語「使役」「被動」規律性演變的方言佐證──漢壽方言中的「等」字被動句 [The regularity of the evolution of causative and passive constructions in Chinese: Evidence from the Changshou dialect]. Wuhan Ligong Daxue Xuebao (Shehui Kexue Ban) 武漢理工大學學報（社會科學版） [Wuhan University of Technology (Social Science Edition)] 17(2). 262–265.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Heine, Bernd. 2002. On the role of context in grammaticalization. In Ilse Wischer & Gabriele Diewald (eds.), New reflections on grammaticalization, 83–101. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Heine, Bernd & Tania Kuteva. 2002. World lexicon of grammaticalization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hopper, Paul J. 1991. On some principles of grammaticization. In Elizabeth Closs Traugott & Bernd Heine (eds.), Approaches to grammaticalization, vol. 11, 17–35. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Hopper, Paul J., & Elizabeth Closs Traugott. 2003. Grammaticalization. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ki, Mei Ying (祁美瑩). 2019. Yueyu shengjiang judiao yanjiu 粵語升降句調研究 [A study of the rising-falling intonation in Cantonese]. Hong Kong: The Chinese University of Hong Kong MPhil thesis.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kittilä, Seppo & Fernando Zúñiga. 2010. Introduction. Benefaction and malefaction from a cross-linguistic perspective. In Fernando Zúñiga & Seppo Kittilä (eds.), Benefactives and malefactives: Typological perspectives and case studies, 1–28. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lau, Chun Fat (劉鎮發). 2000. Xiandai yueyu yuanyu songmo yimin shuo 現代粵語源於宋末移民說 [The origin of Modern Cantonese in the migration of people into Guangdong in the Late Song Period]. In Chow Yiu Sin (單周堯) & Kang Kwong Luke (陸鏡光) (eds.), Diqijie guoji yuefangyan yantaohui lunwenji 第七屆國際粵方言研討會論文集 [Papers from the 7th International Conference on Cantonese and other Yue Dialects], 76–83. Beijing: Commercial Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Leung, Chung-sum (梁仲森). 2005. Dangdai xianggang yueyu yuzhuci de yanjiu 當代香港粵語語助詞的研究 [A study of the utterance particles in Cantonese as spoken in Hong Kong]. Hong Kong: Language Information Sciences Research Centre, City University of Hong Kong.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Li, Xinkui (李新魁), Jiajiao Huang (黃家教), Qisheng Shi (施其生), Yun Mai (麥耘) & Dingfang Chen (陳定方). 1995. Guangzhou fangyan yanjiu 廣州方言研究 [A study of the Guangzhou dialect]. Guangzhou: Guangdong People’s Publishing House.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Liu, Huali (劉華麗). 2014. Hanyu deng dai shiyi jiegou lishi kaocha 漢語「等／待」使役結構歷時考察 [The research on deng and dai causative construction in diachronic Chinese]. Dongya Wenxian Yanjiu 東亞文獻研究 [Journal of East Asian Philological Study] 141. 247–262.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mai, Yun (麥耘). 2003. Guangzhouhua yi qu fuzhi shoushizhe de jushi 廣州話以「佢」複指受事者的句式 [Sentences in Cantonese with resumptive keoi5 referring to the patient]. In Bohui Zhan (詹伯慧) (ed.), Dibajie guoji yuefangyan yantaohui lunwenji 第八屆國際粵方言研討會論文集 [Papers from the 8th International Conference on Cantonese and other Yue Dialects], 515–524. Beijing: China Social Sciences Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Matthews, Stephen & Virginia Yip. 2011. Cantonese: A comprehensive grammar. 2nd ed. London/New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Morrison, Robert. 1828. A vocabulary of the Canton dialect. Macao: The Honorable East India Company’s Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nedyalkov, Vladimir P. & Georgij G. Silnitsky. 1973. The typology of morphological and lexical causatives. In Ferenc Kiefer (ed.), Trends in Soviet theoretical linguistics, 1–32. Dordrecht: D. Reidel. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ōta, Tatsuo (太田辰夫). 1987. Zhongguoyu lishi wenfa 中國語歷史文法 [A historical grammar of Modern Chinese]. Translated by Shaoyu Jiang (蔣紹愚) & Changhua Xu (徐昌華). Beijing: Peking University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Peng, Xiaochuan (彭小川). 2010. Guangzhouhua zhuci yanjiu 廣州話助詞研究 [A study of particles in Cantonese]. Guangzhou: Jinan University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Peng, Xiao-hui (彭曉輝). 2010. Deng de yufahua: Rouhe daozhi de chongxin fenxi 「等」的語法化：糅合導致的重新分析 [Grammaticalization of ‘deng’(等): Blending causing reanalysis]. Yuyan Yanjiu 語言研究 [Studies in Language and Linguistics] 30(2). 82–85.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Peyraube, Alain (貝羅貝) & Huali Liu (劉華麗). 2013. Hanyu dengdaiyi dongci lishi kaocha 漢語「等待」義動詞歷時考察 [Historical investigation of the ‘waiting’ verbs in Chinese]. In Historical Linguistic Studies Editorial Board, Institute of Linguistics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (中國社會科學院語言研究所《歷史語言學研究》編輯部) (eds.), Lishi yuyanxue yanjiu 歷史語言學研究 [Historical linguistic studies], vol. 61, 23–39. Beijing: Commercial Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Qiu, Liyuan (邱麗媛) & Xiufang Dong (董秀芳). 2014. Cong dengdaiyi dao shijian zhishi gongneng de yanbian 從等待義到時間指示功能的演變 [One way of semantic change: From waiting to time referring]. Hanyu Xuebao 漢語學報 [Chinese Linguistics] 471. 55–64.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Quirk, Randolph, Sidney Greenbaum, Geoffrey Leech & Jan Svartvik. 1985. A comprehensive grammar of the English language. London/New York: Longman.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Shibatani, Masayoshi. 1976. The grammar of causative constructions: A conspectus. In Masayoshi Shibatani (ed.), The grammar of causative constructions, 1–40. New York: Academic Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Talmy, Leonard. 1976. Semantic causative types. In Masayoshi Shibatani (ed.), The grammar of causative constructions, 43–116. New York: Academic Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tang, Sze-Wing (鄧思穎). 2015. Yueyu yufa jiangyi 粵語語法講義 [Lectures on Cantonese grammar]. Hong Kong: The Commercial Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Traugott, Elizabeth Closs. 1999. The role of pragmatics in semantic change. In Jef Verschueren (ed.), Pragmatics in 1998: Selected papers from the 6th International Pragmatics Conference, vol. 21, 93–102. Antwerp: International Pragmatics Association.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Traugott, Elizabeth Closs & Richard B. Dasher. 2002. Regularity in semantic change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Traugott, Elizabeth Closs & Ekkehard König. 1991. The semantics-pragmatics of grammaticalization revisited. In Elizabeth Closs Traugott & Bernd Heine (eds.), Approaches to grammaticalization, vol. 11, 189–218. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Van Valin, Robert D. Jr. & Randy J. LaPolla. 1997. Syntax: Structure, meaning and function. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wang, Chunling (王春玲). 2011. Xichong fangyan yufa yanjiu 西充方言語法研究 [A study of the grammar of the Xichong dialect]. Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wang, Huayun (汪化云). 2017. Huangxiao fangyan zhong deng de yufahua 黃孝方言中「等」的語法化 [Grammaticalization of [ten] 等 in dialects of Huangxiao cluster of Jianghuai Mandarin]. Fangyan 方言 [Dialect] 2017(2). 210–215.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wang, Ying (王鍈). 1986. Shi ci qu yuci lishi 詩詞曲語辭例釋 [A dictionary of classical poetry]. Rev. ed. Beijing: Zhonghua Book Company.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Xu, Dan (徐丹). 2003. Shiziju de yanbian: Jian tan shi zi de yufahua 「使」字句的演變──兼談「使」字的語法化 [The development of shi-sentences: With a discussion on grammaticalization of shi]. In Fuxiang Wu (吳福祥) & Bo Hong (洪波) (eds.), Yufahua yu yufa yanjiu 語法化與語法研究 [Grammaticalization and grammar studies], vol. 11, 224–238. Beijing: Commercial Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Yue, Anne O. 2004. Materials for the diachronic study of the Yue dialects. In Feng Shi & Zhongwei Shen (eds.), The joy of research: A festschrift in honor of Professor William S-Y. Wang on his seventieth birthday, 246–271. Tianjin: Nankai University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zhang, Cheng (張赬). 2002. Hanyu jieci cizu cixu de lishi yanbian 漢語介詞詞組詞序的歷史演變 [The historical evolution of the word-order of prepositional phrases in Chinese]. Beijing: Beijing Language and Culture University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue