漢語使役結構的歷時研究

This report contains two researches on the historical developments of Chinese
Shi-yi Constructions, also named as Chinese Causatives.
The first research aims to study the causativisation of Chinese Shi-yi
Constructions, and examines the history of five Shi-yi verbs, i.e. Shi(使), Ling(令),
Jiao(教), Jiao(叫) and Rang(讓). Three major tendencies are found in their history:
from indirect imperatives to causatives, from deliberate causatives to non-deliberate
causatives, and from general causatives to descriptive causatives. This paper argues
that the mechanism for the three changes is generalization, including the
generalization of the verb meaning, the generalization of the subject type and the
generalization of the reference of the object. While the causativisation of Chinese
Shi-yi verbs shows the increase of semantic bleaching and the decrease of
grammaticality, the verbs are not de-categorialized and thus not grammaticalized.
Two forces are proposed to explain this particular phenomenon based on their
syntactic characteristics. This case indicates that semantic bleaching is not
necessarily accompanied by decategorialization and the causativisation of Chinese
Shi-yi verbs is not a case of grammaticalization.
The second research explored the semantic development from causatives to
passives in Chinese. We argue that it is the “unwilling permissives”links the
causatives and the passives. Supports were found for the two phenomena: (1) the
semantic development of “causatives > unwilling permissives > passives” can well
describe the history of three Chinese constructions, i.e. Jiao(教), Rang(讓), and
Gei(給), and (2) the sense of “unwilling permissives”can well characterize the
“reflexive permissions”and the “adversative passives”, both of which are well-known
causative-passives in the other languages. The research also discusses the conditions
for the change from the aspects of semantics and syntax, and point out the pragmatic
function of the causative-passives in comparison to the disposal constructions, i.e. the
BA(把)-Construction.