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In:Lost in Change: Causes and processes in the loss of grammatical elements and constructions
Edited by Svenja Kranich and Tine Breban
[Studies in Language Companion Series 218] 2021
► pp. 131–158

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A constructional account of the loss of the adverse avertive schema in Mandarin Chinese

Editor
 | The University of Edinburgh
Published online: 16 June 2021
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https://doi.org/10.1075/slcs.218.05kuo
Abstract
This study defines the kind of loss under investigation as schema loss in diachronic construction grammar and proposes that schema loss may be related to change in prototypicality. Using the adverse avertive schema in Chinese as an example, it is shown that while older prototypical members of the schema motivated its composition, newer members demotivated it, because their semantics and pragmatics were not a good match with the form and meaning of the schema. The analysis emphasises that loss, like gain, is multidimensional in that both schematic and substantive patterns need to be considered.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Constructions and loss characterised
    • 2.1Constructions
    • 2.2Loss as schema loss
  • 3.Prototypicality, construction grammar and diachronic construction grammar
    • 3.1Prototypicality in ASCs
    • 3.2Extending prototypicality in ASCs
    • 3.3Diachronic construction grammar
  • 4.The adverse avertive schema in Chinese
    • 4.1Data sources
    • 4.2Overview of the schema
    • 4.3Slots in the schema
  • 5.The demise of the adverse avertive schema
    • 5.1Qualitative aspects
    • 5.2Quantitative aspects
    • 5.3The demise of the schema: from ‘danger’ to ‘proximity’
    • 5.4A visual summary
  • 6.Generalisation as loss
  • 7.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgement
  • Notes
  • References
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